What does flog mean?
To flog is to beat someone or something with a whip or rod, historically as a formal punishment for sailors, soldiers, and slaves. The word carries harsh, violent connotations from this punitive history, and it survives today largely through idioms such as 'flog a dead horse', meaning to waste effort on a hopeless cause. In contemporary British slang, however, flog has taken on a second life as a term for selling something, often cheaply or pushily — dealers might be said to 'flog off' unwanted stock. This dual identity makes flog a word of two very different registers: one grimly historical, the other cheerfully commercial. It is also used figuratively to describe relentlessly promoting or working something, as when marketers flog a product. Its origin remains debated, though some scholars link it to the same root as 'flagellum', the Latin word for whip.
verbTo beat someone with a whip or stick as punishment; more broadly, to whip or strike repeatedly. In British slang it also means to sell something, especially by persuading or pressuring buyers.
- To beat or whip a person or animal, especially as punishment.
- (British slang) To sell something, often aggressively or by offloading goods onto buyers.
- To work or publicize something persistently and exhaustingly, e.g. flogging a product.
"The trainer was accused of flogging the horses until they obeyed."
"Sailors in the Royal Navy could once be flogged for minor infractions."
"The company kept flogging its outdated software long after customers had moved on."
In Britain you can flog a dead horse without ever touching a whip — because 'flog' doubles as slang for selling things nobody wants.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of flog
The word flog first appears in English writing in the seventeenth century, apparently as a schoolboy slang term for beating. Its ultimate origin is uncertain; lexicographers have suggested it may be connected to the Latin 'flagellum' (a whip), making words like flagellate distant relatives, though this link is not definitively proven. Whatever its precise source, it quickly entered standard usage as a term for whipping as punishment.
Related word forms
How flog is actually used
As a punishment verb, flog is formal-historical but widely understood; the selling sense is distinctly British informal usage ('flogged off cheap'). The phrase 'flog a dead horse' is an established idiom for wasting effort on something futile.
Easily confused with flog
Flag means to weaken or signal, while flog means either to whip as punishment or (in British slang) to sell something.