run into the ground

run into the ground idiom
  1. Pursue a topic until it has been thoroughly discussed or exhausted, as in They've run the abortion issue into the ground.
  2. Ruin or destroy, as in During her brief time as chief executive Marjorie just about ran the company into the ground. Both usages allude to pushing something so far that it is, in effect, buried. [Early 1800s]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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