Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a severe scolding, a telling-off.

1789		J. Woodforde Diary of Country Parson 1 Feb. (1927) III 81: Thomas Carr dined with our Folks in Kitchen. Gave him a tolerable good Wigg.
1804		Sir J. Malcolm in Life (1856) I 267: If you got a private wig about Gwalior, I shall get a dozen .
1813		T. Moore Twopenny Post Bag in Poetical Wks 129/2: Else, though the Pre be long in rigging, ’Twould take, at least, a fortnight’s wigging / Two wigs to every paragraph / Before he well could get through half .
1852		F.B. Doveton Burmese War 76: The temptation [...] of getting a mouthful of fresh meat, was beyond my powers of resistance, although at the risk of a wig in G. O., or even a court-martial .
1853		Delhi Sketch Bk 1 Dec. 94: [cartoon caption] Col. of the Regiment who has just finished a wig of double vicious power [...] seen contemplaring its probable effect.
1861		R.F. Burton City of the Saints 52: The meritorious intention – for which the severest ‘wig’ [...] would have been its sole result in the ‘fast-anchored isle’ – was most courteously received.
1861		Hills & Plains 2 90: He fully deserved the tremendous ‘wig’ [...] as another proof of his uselessness.
1903		Daily Chron. (London) 21 Nov. 3/3 n.p.: As often as not a ‘wig’ ended by the offer of a cheroot .