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Flogging a dead horse

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In American English 'Beating a dead horse' is an idiom which is most often used as a retort used to make clear that a particular request or line of conversation is already foreclosed, mooted or otherwise resolved.

The linguistic roots of this phrase draw on an allusion to literally "whipping" or "beating" a deceased horse in order to make it get up and go. Such efforts of course, would be utterly fruitless as dead horses do not move under their own power any more.

Likewise, when one is "beating a dead horse", one is flailing at a dead or useless idea.

Examples

A teenage restaurant worker has repeatedly asked his boss for Friday night off to go see Hillary Duff in concert. The boss has several times made it clear that Friday is going to be too busy and the worker's services are needed to help cope. Finally, after being asked one too many times for the night off, the boss responds with "Look, I've told you several times, you can't have Friday off, so stop asking. You are beating a dead horse".

A driver receives a speeding ticket and appeals it at the court house to the Clerk Magistrate. After he loses his appeal, he goes home and starts complaining out loud to himself. Finally after listening to her husband complain for several days, the man's wife says to him "look either appeal that ticket to a judge to stop complaining. Otherwise, you are just beating a dead horse".

Please note this term is not the same as "closing the barn door after the horse gets out" which refers to not taking action until after a problem has already occurred. Rather, "beating a dead horse" is about the futility of ones complaints or actions.

When one "closes the barn door after the horse gets out" there is still a chance to solve the problem by getting the "horse" (i.e. problem) back into the barn. But when you are "beating a dead horse", no amount of action or argument on your part is going to change the facts or the situation.


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