🐴 Horse
"Flogging a dead horse"
Meaning
Wasting effort on something that cannot succeed.
About the horse
Horses have long been work and racing animals, so their idioms describe effort, priorities, and stubborn resistance.
Example sentence
Trying to convince Tom to share his chips was flogging a dead horse.
Test yourself
Which idiom means...
Wasting effort on something that cannot succeed.
More horse idioms
HorseIdiom
"Straight from the horse's mouth"
Information received directly from the person who knows the truth.
HorseIdiom
"Dark horse"
A person who surprises everyone by doing very well.
HorseIdiom
"Hold your horses"
Wait a moment; do not rush.
HorseIdiom
"Eat like a horse"
To eat a lot.
HorseIdiom
"A horse of a different color"
A completely different matter.
HorseIdiom
"You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink"
You can give someone a chance, but you cannot force them to use it.