beat a dead horse | Idiomator

Meaning: (idiomatic)Topersistorcontinuefar beyond anypurpose,interestorreason.After having shown us three hours of instructional and safety videos, the inspector was simplybeating a dead horseby telling us to buckle up as we got into the van.1992, William A. Katz,Reference Services and Reference Processes,McGraw-Hill,→ISBN, page220:The library director believes the argument about “professionalism” isa“dead horsewe should stopbeating.”1999, Fredrick Carl Redlich,Hitler: Diagnosis of a Destructive Prophet,Oxford University Press,→ISBN, page xii:A friend, the political scientist Irving Bernstein, told me that political scientists and historians are inclined to regard the question of objectivity asa dead horsethat one should stopbeating, and maintained that it is not the scholar but the lay person who has problems with objectivity.2016, Anthony Livingston Hall,The iPINIONS Journal: Commentaries on the Global Events of 2015, volume XI,iUniverse,→ISBN:I won’t stopbeating this dead horseuntil (male) TV executives stop this sexist practice.

Examples:

EN: I'm sure Lois told you about it, and I don't want to beat a dead horse but you should know, that she definitely put me in my place... - ...and nothing like this will happen again.
ES: Seguro que Lois te lo ha contado y no quiero insistir en el tema pero debes saber que ella me puso en mi sitio y nada así volverá a pasar.
EN: When it comes to an ugly image, you can't beat a dead horse.
ES: Si se trata de imágenes desagradables, no hay nada peor que un caballo muerto.
EN: Why would anyone beat a dead horse?
ES: ¿Por qué alguien golpearía a un caballo muerto?
EN: Why do people always have to beat a dead horse to death?
ES: ¿Por qué la gente siempre quiere matar a golpes a un caballo muerto?
EN: Well, not to beat a dead horse, fellows, but what is your favorite kind of sausage?
ES: Bueno, no es por seguir con cosas vanales, amigos... pero ¿cuál es vuestra salchicha favorita?
EN: I don't mean to beat a dead horse, but you know we can't tell Mom and Alan about this, right?
ES: No quise golpear a un caballo muerto, pero tú sabes que no podemos decirle a mamá y Alan sobre esto, ¿cierto?
EN: Let's not beat a dead horse. It's over.
ES: No le demos más vueltas.
EN: I don't wanna beat a dead horse, but let's go over it again.
ES: No quiero ganar a un torpe pero allá vamos otra vez.
EN: Sir, not to beat a dead horse, but if there was ever a time for us to put boots on Saudi sand, I mean, don't you think this is it?
ES: Señor, no quiero hacer leña del árbol caído, pero si alguna vez tuvimos que ir a Arabia Saudita, ¿no cree que es ahora?
EN: You want to beat a dead horse, do your thing.
ES: Si quieres perder el tiempo, adelante.
EN: Hey, I don't want to beat a dead horse...
ES: No quiero hacer leña del árbol caído...
EN: Speaking of enjoying life, I don't wanna beat a dead horse here, but are you sure you don't see anything non-platonic ever crystallizing between us?
ES: Hablando de disfrutar de la vida... No quiero parecer pesado, pero ¿estás segura de que no ves nada no-platónico sucediendo entre nosotros?
EN: What kind of sicko would beat a dead horse?
ES: ¿Qué clase de pirado mordería un caballo muerto?
EN: Anyway, not to beat a dead horse, but just to be super clear, I was looking for the key out front, and I thought maybe it was on the side. You know, and that's really...
ES: No quiero seguir con lo mismo, pero para aclararlo, sólo buscaba la llave al frente y pensé que tal vez estaba a un lado, y ésa es...
EN: I'm not trying to beat a dead horse here, but I could stay.
ES: No estoy intentando perder el tiempo aquí, pero podría quedarme.

Note: the examples for non latin scripts have a high likelihood of mistakes, we do not own any of this data and it is sourced from Wiktionary, the NLLB database and Opensubtitles. Please help us improve this by contributing correct examples. We will be working to fix this issue over time however it is a bigger issue due to the the difficulties in dealing with non latin scripts and grammatical structures(non-romantic/european languages have lower resources as well ).