flog, v.
(flɒg)
[Mentioned in 1676 as a cant word. Presumably of onomatopœic formation; cf. flack, flap; if it originated in school slang, it may have been suggested by L. flagellare.]
1. a. trans. To beat, whip; to chastise with repeated blows of a rod or whip.
| 1676 Coles, Flog, to whip [marked as a cant word]. 1740 Christm. Entertainm. ii. (1883) 10 Then I was as certainly flogged. 1784 Cowper Tiroc. 329 How he was flogged, or had the luck to escape. 1809 Byron Let. to Hodgson 25 June, The women are flogged at the cart's tail. 1830 Marryat King's Own i, A man sentenced to be flogged round the fleet receives an equal part of the whole number of lashes awarded alongside each ship composing that fleet. 1852 Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom's C. xxxiii, Tom shall have the pleasure of flogging her. 1881 Besant & Rice Chapl. Fleet I. 49 Is it not barbarous to flog our soldiers and sailors for insubordination? |
| absol. 1727 Swift Molly Mog iv, The School-Master's joy is to flog. 1887 L. Stephen in Dict. Nat. Biog. XI. 303 Boyer flogged pitilessly. |
b. Const.
into,
out of,
through.
| 1830 Gentl. Mag. Jan. 56/2 Providence flogged him [Richter] into contentment. 1852 Smedley L. Arundel i. 19, I have not forgotten the Greek and Latin flogged into us at Westminster. 1886 J. Westby-Gibson in Dict. Nat. Biog. VI. 42/1 What he knew of mathematics he was ‘flogged through’. 1887 Hall Caine Coleridge i. 21 I'll flog your infidelity out of you! |
c. To urge forward (a horse, etc.) by flogging. Also
fig. (In early 19th c. to urge on by importunity, etc.) Also (
freq. intr.) in slang use: (
i) to proceed by violent or painful effort; (
ii) to obtain,
usu. by violent effort.
| 1793 Spirit Pub. Jrnls. (1799) I. 111 Two of the largest [turkeys]..were flogged up into the boot of a mail-coach. 1800 I. Milner in Life xii. (1842) 220, I was flogged by good Richardson..to let him have the Life. 1806–7 J. Beresford Miseries Hum. Life (1826) II. xvi, To flog yourself up into an inclination to work in your garden. 1841 James Brigand iii, Take off the bridles of their horses, and flog them down the valley. 1925 Fraser & Gibbons Soldier & Sailor Words 96 To flog,..to walk; go on foot.—e.g., ‘There was no train so we flogged it.’ 1936 Geogr. Jrnl. LXXXVII. 166 We had to flog our way through snow up to our waists. 1943 N. Coward Middle East Diary 26 Aug. (1964) 64 Visualised himself flogging through the provinces in Shakespearian Rep. indefinitely. 1959 B. Goolden For Richer, for Poorer viii. 121 A sports model out of which they could flog eighty with ease. 1964 Times 11 Feb. 11/6 [Lorry drivers] are being encouraged to ‘flog on’ even in bad weather. |
d. fig. in phrases,
to flog the glass (see
quot.);
to flog the clock, to move the hands forward;
to flog a dead horse: see
horse n. 19.
| 1769 Falconer Dict. Marine (1789), Manger du sable, to flog the glass, or cheat the glass; expressed of the steersman, who turns the watch-glasses before they have run out, in order to shorten the period of his watch. 1894 Daily Chron. 4 Aug. 3/5, I got suspicious that it [the clock] was being flogged—that is, altered—in the interest of making the time of those in the mate's watch shorter. |
2. fig. a. slang. To ‘beat’, excel.
b. dial. in
pass. To tire (
out.)
Cf. dead-beat A.
| a 1841 T. Hook (Ogilv.) Good cherry-bounce flogs all the foreign trash in the world. 1847 Le Fanu T. O'Brien 253 Of all the brimstone spawn that I ever came across that same she-devil flogs them. 1875 Sussex Gloss. s.v., I was fairly flogged by the time I got home. 1883 E. A. Freeman in Stephens Life & Lett. (1895) II. 274, I think for position it flogs every place I know. 1924 Kipling Debits & Credits (1926) 132, I went to bed; for I was fair flogged out. |
c. slang (
orig. Mil.). To sell or offer for sale,
orig. illicitly.
| 1919 [Implied in flogging vbl. n. 2 d.]. 1925 Fraser & Gibbons Soldier & Sailor Words 96 To flog, to sell something not the vendor's own to dispose of. 1951 G. Hanley Consul at Sunset 125 He was dead... His kit was collected and flogged to those who would buy it in the mess. 1966 J. Porter Sour Cream x. 134 Filching state property and flogging it to the eager populace is a common enough crime in the Soviet Union as it was with us during the war. 1967 M. Drabble Jerusalem the Golden v. 112 Let's go..and look at the ghastly thing that Martin flogged us. |
3. a. In general sense: To beat, lash, strike; also with
down.
Fishing. To cast the fly-line over (a stream) repeatedly; also
absol. Cricketing. To ‘punish’ (bowling).
| 1801 Wolcott (P. Pind.), Tears and Smiles Wks. 1812 V. 44 As schoolboys flog a top. 1837 Marryat Dog-fiend v, The vessel so flogged by the waves. 1853 Herschel Pop. Lect. Sc. i. §23 (1873) 17 Trees were seen to flog the ground with their branches. 1859 Jephson Brittany v. 56 Trout streams, which have not yet been flogged by cockneys. 1867 F. Francis Angling ix. (1880) 327 A salmon bullied into rising by a customer who..kept flogging on. 1884 I. Blyth in Lillywhite's Cricket Ann. 8 Bonnor..flogged the bowling to the extent of 54. 1892 Whymper Great Andes iii. 68 The only possible way of proceeding was to flog every yard of it [the snow] down. |
b. intr. Of a sail: To beat or flap heavily.
| 1839 Marryat Phant. Ship xxii, The storm-staysail..flogged and cracked with a noise louder than the gale. |
4. Comb., as
flog-master, a prison flogger.
| 1702 T. Brown Lett. Dead to Living Wks. 1760 II. 205 Busby was never a greater terror to a blockhead, or the Bridewell flog-master to a night-walking strumpet. |
Hence
flogged,
ˈflogging ppl. adjs.| 1682 [see flauging]. 1836 Gen. P. Thompson Exerc. (1842) IV. 99 Keeping us what Mr. Cobbett denominated ‘a flogged people’. 1884 Athenæum 19 July 75/3 He undergoes brutal treatment from a flogging master. 1891 Sat. Rev. 21 Mar. 343/2 The blood of flogged boys. |