cover the same ground

To discuss or address something that has already been discussed or examined. I don't know why we keep having meetings when all we do is cover the same ground every week. If you want your article to be published, don't write about Jonathan Swift—you'll just cover the same ground as hundreds of other scholars. Why not write about Aphra Behn? Come on, we all know the schedule for tomorrow—quit covering the same ground.

cover the same ground

go over the same ground

If something such as a conversation, a piece of writing or a course covers the same ground or goes over the same ground, it deals with the same subjects or the same part of a subject that has already been dealt with. As the titles of these two books imply, they cover much the same ground. You continue to think and wonder about it, going over the same ground in your mind, again and again.

See also: cover, ground, same

Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012

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References in periodicals archive

This law textbook is for a course that covers both substantive and procedural criminal law, and the 13th edition incorporates recent decisions of the US Supreme Court, making room by deleting cases that have been superseded by newer cases, and substituting shorter cases for longer ones that cover the same ground. The topics include offenses against the habitation and other protected entities, offenses against property, responsibility: limitation on criminal capacity, sentencing, investigation and adjudication.

Criminal Law and Procedure: Cases and Materials, 13th Edition

School librarians should check first to see if they already have other books that cover the same ground. If they don't then this would be a good choice.

Barr, Martyn: The Lost Generation: The Young Person's Guide to World War I

All I could do was watch him cover the same ground as before, expecting him to disappear over the rise.

Second time's a charm

She said the more focused and detailed state investigation would cover the same ground as her inquiry.

Church's sex probe ends

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