the.com/flogging
Persuading skin with leather, when words have run out of options.
means Beating someone with a whip or stick as punishment, or aggressively selling something.
from Surfaced in 1670s English slang, possibly echoing Latin flagellare, to whip, or just the wet smack of the sound itself.
Naval stapleRoyal Navy banned it only in 1879.
Dead horseFlogging one means wasting effort on the futile.
Sales senseBrits flog goods; Americans just hawk them.