Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (UK Und.) to whip [SE from 1800].

1674		Head Canting Academy (2nd edn).
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Flog c. to Whip. Flog’d, c. severely Lasht. Flog’d at the Tumbler, c. Whipt at the Cart’s Arse. Flogging, c. a Naked Woman’s whipping (with Rods) an Old (usually) and (sometimes) a Young Lecher. As the Prancer drew the Queer Cove, at the cropping of the Rotan, the Rum Pads of the Rum vile, and was Flogg’d by the Rum Cove, c. the Rogue was dragg’d at the Cart’s tail through the chief Streets of London, and was soundly Whipt by the Hangman.
1707		J. Shirley Triumph of Wit 194: The Prancer drew the Quere Cove at the cropping of the Rottam through the Rum pads of the Rum-vill, and was flogg’d by the Nubbing-cove. [The Rogue was dragged at the Cart’s Arse through the chief Streets of London, and whipp’d by the Hangman].
1719		A. Smith Lives of Most Notorious Highway-men, etc. (1926) 206: Flog, to whip. Flogging cove, the beadle, or whipper in Bridewell. Flogging-stake, the whipping post. Flogged at the tumbler, i.e ., whipped at the cart’s tail. As the prancer drew the queer cove, at the cropping of the rotan, the rum pads of the Rumvile, and was flogged by the rum-cove, i.e., the rogue was dragged at the cart’s tail through the chief streets of London and was soundly whipped by the hangman.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].

2. to have sexual intercourse.

c.1720		‘The Masquerade Ball’ in Farmer Merry Songs and Ballads (1897) III 235: O! a Masquerade’s a fine Place, / For Carriers that love Jogging: / And shou’d they meet a Milk maid, / They wou’d not fail of Flogging.
1979		J. Morrow Confessions of Proinsias O’Toole 112: Action packed – with me flogging Toby’s honey-pot.

3. to beat, to surpass; now common in sporting contexts.

1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 81: Flog (v.) ? to excel, to beat a person without resistance: ‘I can’t fight [scientifically] but I won’t be flogged.’ ? ‘Vell, so help me Deborah, if that there does not flog all as ever I know’d.’.
1843		St Clair Banner 12 Dec. 1/3: Dog my cats, if I can’t flog any man on that boat, for fist fight or for rough and tumble! [DA].
1879		C.J. Kickham Knocknagow 309: That flogs all!
1925		(con. WWI) Fraser & Gibbons Soldier and Sailor Words 96: Flog, To: [...] To beat any one down or ‘do’ him.
1991		P. Daicos Collingwood and Me 49: West Coast flogged us in Perth in the first match.
1992		R.G. Barrett White Shoes 252: Well, did we flog those cunts or what, Les?

4. to proceed by violent or painful effort; usu. referring to passage on foot.

1834		(con. 1737–9) W.H. Ainsworth Rookwood (1857) 270: Our trio flogged with might and main.
1921		N&Q 12 Ser. IX 346: Flog it. Walk it.
1925		(con. WWI) Fraser & Gibbons Soldier and Sailor Words 96: Flog, To: [...] To walk; go on foot.
1942		Canberra Times (ACT) 14 July 2/5: No sleep last night, and we all drenched to the skin, flogging up huge hills and fording rivers filled with crocs.
1978		S. Murray Legionnaire 119: We flogged through the undergrowth all day and covered about twenty miles, hacking away with our coupe-coupe.

5. (UK Und.) to drink heavily; thus flogger, a heavy drinker.

1865

Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 107/2: Then wine was gone up, but the ’alf-an’-’alf, and porter! Heavens! what a quantity was punished, and foremost in the floggers of the ‘heavy’ stood George Bull.

6. (Aus.) to worry.

1896		Coburg Leader (Vic.) 11 Jan. 4/1: Who is the boy that was flogging at the cricket match between George street and Albert Star. Surely not Eddie.
1919		W.H. Downing Digger Dialects 24: flog — To worry; express or feel keenly; contrition or chagrin.
1925		(con. WWI) Fraser & Gibbons Soldier and Sailor Words 96: Flog, To: [...] To worry.

7. (Aus.) to overuse or overexploit land, as by overcropping, overstocking, etc.

[1862		Launceston Exmainer (Tas.) 8 Nov. 3/2: He observed some farms which were not first-rate in their producing qualities. He would remark that some persons erroneously imagined that they might flog land to death like a horse (hear, hear)].
1905		Chron. (Adelaide) 29 July 7/1: [L]et one pause and consider whether this policy of flogging the land will in time utterly exhaust its wheat-producing powers, and make its final condition one of lamentable sterility.
1936		Bulletin (Sydney) 15 Jan. 20/4: Then chop the paddock up with a disc, flog it with sheep; work again, and sow a fodder crop of oats.
1964		Canberra Times (ACT) 15 Dec. 18/3: There was evidence that overgrazing and overstocking had occurred to the extent that some of the country had been ‘flogged’ - completely eaten out with no attempt at pasture conservation.
2004		J. Lambert Macquarie Aus. Sl. Dict. 82/2: flog: [...] 5. to make land useless by overgrazing, overcropping or the like.

8. to masturbate; thus flog, an act of masturbation, flogger, a masturbator.

1942		P. Larkin letter 12 Aug. in Thwaite Sel. Letters (1992) 42: These days are unbearably dull [...] My flogging chart reads 2:3. [footnote: ‘Record of masturbation’].
a.1968		‘School Ma’am on the Flat’ in G. Logsdon Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing (1995) 54: He knew he’d have to marry her if he opened up her flue, / If John Henry gets to raring up, he will flog him with his hat / Before he goes a-courting another school ma’am on the flat.
1972		D. Jenkins Semi-Tough 45: There was Bubba [...] staring at some lovelies on the beach for inspiration—and flogging away.
1981		W. Boyd ‘Hardly Ever’ in On the Yankee Station (1982) 44: ‘What’s a flogger?’ Holland’s girl asked. Panton was doubled up with mirth. [Ibid.] 46: ‘Okay, folks,’ came a voice. ‘Stop flogging, here’s Niles.’.
1985		B. Arndt Aus. Way of Sex 12: Having a flog, or flogging yourself. Wanking or wanking yourself.
1991		R.G. Barratt ‘I’m Pulling for Ya, Pee Wee’ in What Do You Reckon (1997) [ebook] Daryl Somers’ ostrich got nabbed flogging himself.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl.
2013		T. Pluck ‘Story of O Street’ in Life During Wartime (2018) 56: The poster of Farrah Fawcett he had flogged himself silly to.
2014		me-stepmums-too-fuckin-hot-mate at www.fakku.net 🌐 ’magine if she came home an’ caught me havin’ a flog to her jocks.

9. (also flog off) to sell, currently non-specific, but orig. with criminal overtones; also fig., to promote (see Humphries 1962).

1919		War Terms in Athenaeum 1 Aug. 695/2: ‘Jam’s out,’ meaning a general shortage of rations. ‘Flogging’, the illegal disposal of Army goods .
1919		7th F.A.B. Yandoo 10 Nov. [6]/2: S.M. Laurie Lowe slipped, as he did not return the ‘Musical Box’ after borrowing it. What did you ‘flog’ it for Laurie?
1924		(con. WWI) A.G. Pretty Gloss. of Sl. [...] in the A.I.F. 1921–1924 (rev. t/s) n.p.: flog. [...] to sell an article.
1936		J. Curtis Gilt Kid 95: Scaley could not pretend to have flogged the stuff for less than he had got.
1938		Western mail (Perth) 10 Nov. 67/2: We tried to flog a wristlet watch to kick kitty up a bit, but gathered, after a heck of a lot of battling round, that it couldn’t be done.
1946		S. Jackson Indiscreet Guide to Soho 65: Standard technique is to flog the old ‘spiel’ about ‘Daddy having been in the Indian Army’.
1950		Truth (Sydney) 19 Mar. 33/3: , ‘I never seen this gear (stolen property) myself, mind you — but there was talk [...] about somebody trying to flog a gold cigarette-case’ .
1955		J.P. Donleavy Ginger Man (1958) 164: Wait for a second while I flog the meat.
1959		F. Norman Fings I i: When I flogged that load of army gear, to Duke Sullivan.
1959		I. & P. Opie Lore and Lang. of Schoolchildren (1977) 125: We are three spivs of Trafalgar Square / Flogging nylons tuppence a pair.
1961		Aus. Women’s Wkly 13 Sept. 64/6: ‘I knew the drill for all irregularities on the premises, from trying to tickle the hostesses to trying to flog a machine gun’.
1962		R. Cook Crust on its Uppers 19: Two years in Spain flogging hot tape-recorders.
1962		B. Humphries Nice Night’s Entertainment (1981) 73: They’re all past masters at flogging the Australian gimmick, and they’re the blue-eyed boys of the continental art critics too .
1976		J. Larkins Sheilas 117: ‘In the Depression, dad hadn’t been able to get work so Mum made pies and pasties and he’d walk from door to door flogging them’ .
1986		R.G. Barrett Real Thing 153: There’s at least fifteen grand’s worth of pot there. I’ll put you in the whack when I flog it back in Sydney.
1987		T. Wolfe Bonfire of the Vanities 415: The austere peer had given a lunch for Lopwitz [...] in the hope of having him flog a lot of ‘creatively structured’ Daily Courier stock.
1990		(con. c.1970) G. Hasford Phantom Blooper 30: You can sell fake NVA flags and chrome-plated shrapnel and you can flog off photographs of Ann-Margret’s crotch in tight yellow capri pants.
1994		G. Disher Crosskill [ebook] ‘There’ll always be blokes who swipe cars, always be chop-shop cowboys who flog or use the parts off them’.
2005		Argus Article 13 Sept. 🌐 At the moment space is at a premium so they are trying to flog a load of overhead projectors on eBay.
2006		B. Matthews Intractable [ebook] I would fly around on my pushbike doing my paper round and afterwards I would flog the excess newspapers around town.
2010		K. Richards Life 201: Very much into flogging the furniture [...] ‘I’ve got this wonderful chest, sixteenth century’.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 175: These townie loogans were comprehensively chiselled [...] flogged sheep infected with frothy bloat, calves suffering grass tetany and goats with Esmond’s Prion.

10. (Aus./US) to go fast; to drive at high speeds, thus flog it.

1927		Dly Teleg. (Sydney) 26 Mar. 15/3: None but brutal drivers will flog their cars along at ‘schedule speed’ over bad roads, when, by every dictate of common sense, a much slower speed is called for.
1933		Cairns Post 17 Nov. Use the gear box sensibly and don’t flog the car on hills or by racing ‘flat out’: .
1954		Sydney Morn. Herald 11 Jan. 8/5: In a fever of anxiety he had flogged his old car along the country road, with its sharp bends and walled fields.
1968		J. O’Grady Gone Troppo (1995) 7: ‘When you get sick of flogging the semi, and if the drought doesn’t break, make your way across’.
1972		D. Jenkins Semi-Tough 108: They usually hop in Big Ed’s Firestream Two, his six-seater jet, and flog it in on Saturday night and then flog it back to Fort Worth on Sunday.
1974		Aus. Women’s Wkly 10 Apr. 51/1: The irresponsible, drink-sodden driver [...] flogging his horse just as his modern counterpart flogs his car.
1986		R.G. Barrett Godson 65: [H]e’d put the two-year-old station wagon through its paces, without flogging it too much.
2004		J. Lambert Macquarie Aus. Sl. Dict. 82/2: flog: [...] 3. to drive a vehicle at top speed.

11. (Aus.) to steal.

1940		World’s News (Sydney) 20 Jan. 18/4: To steal a thing you flogged it, and a gutzer you’d be laid, / To sorrow of your cobber and the bint, or Arab maid.
1940		Dly News (Perth) 20 Aug. 8/2: [A] return to conditions prevailing when [...] farmers were sent to gaol for ‘flogging’ (stealing) sufficient wheat to obtain the bare necessities of life, is not desirable .
1972		Alice Springs Dict. 9: Flog - To ‘pinch’ something.
1988		M. Cameron A Look at the Bright Side n.p.: ‘I’m sorry I couldn’t ring but some arsehole flogged the fucking phone’.
1996		G. Parry Mosh 49: She legs it to the playground equipment in case I try to flog her flagon.
2018		G. Gilmore Base Nature [ebook] ‘You know “flog” in England means selling stuff. Funny how you Aussies use it to mean nicking.’ ‘Got to nick it before you can sell it’.

12. (Aus. Und.) to beat up (a whip is not used).

1979		R. Denning Prison Diaries 111: The cunts across the street didn’t want anything done about hearing prisoners being flogged every day of the week.
1990		Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Flog. 1. To beat mercilessly, usually with fists, and not with a whip as literally implied.
2001		(con. 1945–6) P. Doyle Devil’s Jump (2008) 60: I can probably persuade the mob from the Glengarry Castle not to flog you.
2006		B. Matthews Intractable [ebook] The methods used to instil the fear of authority were [...] strenuous and robust floggings or baton-whippings by prison guards often selected [...] for that specific reason.

13. of an idea, a complaint, to belabour.

1991

M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read Chopper From The Inside 119: I have told Slim that nothing is more boring than people forever flogging the not guilty line: ‘I didn’t do it, I’m not guilty’ [...] and so forth.