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I saw an article recently where the author used the term "flogging a dead horse" where the term flogging was meant in the UK slang sense of "to sell".
It was accompanied by a drawing of a stuffed horse being sold at market with a sign along the lines of "fast, living horse for sale". (I can't find the article again).
Is this usage of the phrase valid? I always thought that the phrase was a slight rewording of "beating a dead horse" where "flog"/"beat" would mean to physically hit.
It's certainly valid to say "flogging a dead horse" to mean "selling a dead horse", but "flogging a dead horse" is an idiom meaning you're doing something pointless: whipping a dead horse won't make it move any faster.
However, the drawing you saw must have been a comic making fun use of word-play by punning on two meanings of flog.
In normal use, however, you should stick the common meaning of the idiom. (But how often you do need to use the "selling a dead horse" meaning?)
