flog

Definition

To whip or scourge as punishment.

Etymology

From Middle English *floggen (suggested by flogge (“hammer, sledge”), from Old English *floggian, a stem variant of Proto-Germanic *flukkōną (“to beat”), itself a secondary zero-grade iterative with unetymological -u-, derived from *flōkaną. The original zero-grade iterative *flakkōną had been misinterpreted as an o-grade. See flack (“to beat”), also as a dialectal noun "a blow, slap". Cognate with Scots flog (“a blow, stripe, flogging”, noun), Scots flog (“thin strip of wood”), Norwegian flak (“a piece torn off, strip”). Alternatively, a back-formation from flogger, from Low German flogger (“a flail”).

Example Sentences

• "I did seven laps of Fyshwick with the mechanic today. I was turning lots of heads on the last few, people must of thought I was nuts, flogging the car then stopping, then driving slow then flogging it again."
• "And then there's my part time job at Telstra Bigpond flogging their cable network for just $67.55/month long term cost, a BARGAIN, and the other part time job flogging Foxtel at something like $50/month."
• "Flanders was able to flog his piece of land, for which he had originally paid £4,000, to one of the largest gold-mining corporations for something like a couple of million smackers."