Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US) a beating.

1937		E. Anderson Thieves Like Us (1999) 63: You going to see a guy get the damndest behind-kicking.
1943		M. Curtiss Letters Home (1944) 22 Apr. 234: The better a little ass-kicking now than letting the ass get so strong it threatens to kick us later.
1954		C. Chessman Cell 2455 84: Well [...] if it ain’t the gutless wonder. You looking for another ass-kicking, maybe?
1964		R. Abrahams Deep Down In The Jungle 147: Down in the jungle near a dried-up creek, / The signifying monkey hadn’t slept for a week / Remembering the ass-kicking he had got in the past / He had to find somebody to kick the lion’s ass.
1972		(con. 1960s) D. Goines Whoreson 98: It was the only thing that prevented Little-Bit from getting a good ass-kicking.
1973		E. Bunker No Beast So Fierce 67: It was a pretty fair ass-kicking, but I was able to drive away.
1981		J. Ellroy Brown’s Requiem 108: Maybe an ass-kicking, by me.
1999		T. Dorsey Florida Roadkill 74: Cheese-Dick [...] had scars everywhere from his cavalcade of ass-kickings.
2001		Source Aug. 196: You’re left with gun talk, ass-kicking, humping and being high.
2015		D. Simon on themarshallproject.org 29 Apr. 🌐 He runs, and so when he’s caught he takes an ass-kicking and then goes into the back of a wagon.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 82: ‘You’re heading for a good ass kicking’.