"beat a dead horse" meaning in All languages combined

See beat a dead horse on Wiktionary

Verb [English]

Audio: En-us-beat a dead horse.ogg , en-au-beat a dead horse.ogg Forms: beats a dead horse [present, singular, third-person], beating a dead horse [participle, present], beat a dead horse [past], beaten a dead horse [participle, past], beat a dead horse [colloquial, participle, past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|beat<,,beat,beaten:beat􂀿colloquial􂁀> a dead horse}} beat a dead horse (third-person singular simple present beats a dead horse, present participle beating a dead horse, simple past beat a dead horse, past participle beaten a dead horse or (colloquial) beat a dead horse)
  1. (idiomatic) To persist or continue far beyond any purpose, interest or reason. Tags: idiomatic Categories (topical): Death Synonyms: flog a dead horse Related terms: necrohippoflagellation, necrohipposadism, kick someone when they are down, preach to the choir
    Sense id: en-beat_a_dead_horse-en-verb-4tE0XT7C Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English predicates, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "beats a dead horse",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "beating a dead horse",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "beat a dead horse",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "beaten a dead horse",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "beat a dead horse",
      "tags": [
        "colloquial",
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "beat<,,beat,beaten:beat􂀿colloquial􂁀> a dead horse"
      },
      "expansion": "beat a dead horse (third-person singular simple present beats a dead horse, present participle beating a dead horse, simple past beat a dead horse, past participle beaten a dead horse or (colloquial) beat a dead horse)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English predicates",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Death",
          "orig": "en:Death",
          "parents": [
            "Body",
            "Life",
            "All topics",
            "Nature",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "After having shown us three hours of instructional and safety videos, the inspector was simply beating a dead horse by telling us to buckle up as we got into the van.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1992, William A. Katz, Reference Services and Reference Processes, McGraw-Hill, →ISBN, page 220:",
          "text": "The library director believes the argument about “professionalism” is a “dead horse we should stop beating.”",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1999, Fredrick Carl Redlich, Hitler: Diagnosis of a Destructive Prophet, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page xii:",
          "text": "A friend, the political scientist Irving Bernstein, told me that political scientists and historians are inclined to regard the question of objectivity as a dead horse that one should stop beating, and maintained that it is not the scholar but the lay person who has problems with objectivity.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2016, Anthony Livingston Hall, The iPINIONS Journal: Commentaries on the Global Events of 2015, volume XI, iUniverse, →ISBN:",
          "text": "I won’t stop beating this dead horse until (male) TV executives stop this sexist practice.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To persist or continue far beyond any purpose, interest or reason."
      ],
      "id": "en-beat_a_dead_horse-en-verb-4tE0XT7C",
      "links": [
        [
          "persist",
          "persist"
        ],
        [
          "continue",
          "continue"
        ],
        [
          "purpose",
          "purpose"
        ],
        [
          "interest",
          "interest"
        ],
        [
          "reason",
          "reason"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To persist or continue far beyond any purpose, interest or reason."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "necrohippoflagellation"
        },
        {
          "word": "necrohipposadism"
        },
        {
          "word": "kick someone when they are down"
        },
        {
          "word": "preach to the choir"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "flog a dead horse"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-us-beat a dead horse.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/9/9d/En-us-beat_a_dead_horse.ogg/En-us-beat_a_dead_horse.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9d/En-us-beat_a_dead_horse.ogg"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-au-beat a dead horse.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/0/08/En-au-beat_a_dead_horse.ogg/En-au-beat_a_dead_horse.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/08/En-au-beat_a_dead_horse.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "beat a dead horse"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "beats a dead horse",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "beating a dead horse",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "beat a dead horse",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "beaten a dead horse",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "beat a dead horse",
      "tags": [
        "colloquial",
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "beat<,,beat,beaten:beat􂀿colloquial􂁀> a dead horse"
      },
      "expansion": "beat a dead horse (third-person singular simple present beats a dead horse, present participle beating a dead horse, simple past beat a dead horse, past participle beaten a dead horse or (colloquial) beat a dead horse)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "necrohippoflagellation"
    },
    {
      "word": "necrohipposadism"
    },
    {
      "word": "kick someone when they are down"
    },
    {
      "word": "preach to the choir"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English predicates",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "English verbs",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "en:Death"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "After having shown us three hours of instructional and safety videos, the inspector was simply beating a dead horse by telling us to buckle up as we got into the van.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1992, William A. Katz, Reference Services and Reference Processes, McGraw-Hill, →ISBN, page 220:",
          "text": "The library director believes the argument about “professionalism” is a “dead horse we should stop beating.”",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1999, Fredrick Carl Redlich, Hitler: Diagnosis of a Destructive Prophet, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page xii:",
          "text": "A friend, the political scientist Irving Bernstein, told me that political scientists and historians are inclined to regard the question of objectivity as a dead horse that one should stop beating, and maintained that it is not the scholar but the lay person who has problems with objectivity.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2016, Anthony Livingston Hall, The iPINIONS Journal: Commentaries on the Global Events of 2015, volume XI, iUniverse, →ISBN:",
          "text": "I won’t stop beating this dead horse until (male) TV executives stop this sexist practice.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To persist or continue far beyond any purpose, interest or reason."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "persist",
          "persist"
        ],
        [
          "continue",
          "continue"
        ],
        [
          "purpose",
          "purpose"
        ],
        [
          "interest",
          "interest"
        ],
        [
          "reason",
          "reason"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To persist or continue far beyond any purpose, interest or reason."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-us-beat a dead horse.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/9/9d/En-us-beat_a_dead_horse.ogg/En-us-beat_a_dead_horse.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9d/En-us-beat_a_dead_horse.ogg"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-au-beat a dead horse.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/0/08/En-au-beat_a_dead_horse.ogg/En-au-beat_a_dead_horse.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/08/En-au-beat_a_dead_horse.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "flog a dead horse"
    }
  ],
  "word": "beat a dead horse"
}

Download raw JSONL data for beat a dead horse meaning in All languages combined (3.3kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-10-02 using wiktextract (fbeafe8 and 7f03c9b). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.