beat a dead horse
US informal UK informal flog a dead horseto waste effort on something when there is no chance of succeeding:
He keeps trying to get it published but I think he's beating a dead horse.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Failing and doing badly
- at-risk
- backbencher
- balls-up
- be running on empty idiom
- beta male
- crack
- crash
- draw
- fail
- fall apart
- fray around/at the edges idiom
- fumble
- get off on the right/wrong foot idiom
- give up on sb/sth
- go against sb
- sink like a stone idiom 1
- sink like a stone
- so much for sth idiom
- stagnate
- strike out
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