beat a dead horse vs kick around

beat a dead horse

verb
  • To persist or continue far beyond any purpose, interest or reason. 

kick around

verb
  • To wander loose; to float around; to hang around. 

  • To be discussed informally; to be considered. 

  • To abuse or mistreat; to bully; to be rough with. 

noun
  • An informal game of football, rugby or similar sports. 

How often have the words beat a dead horse and kick around occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )