Green’s Dictionary of Slang

spanking n.

a beating.

1845		J.J. Hooper Adventures of Captain Simon Suggs (1851) 170: She inflicted what, in our nursery days, would have been called a ‘sound spankink’.
1859, 1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1871		London Figaro 22 Apr. n.p.: ‘Public School’ etc. Various punishments that, in schoolboy language, are called ‘woppings,’ ‘lickings,’ and ‘spankings’ [F&H].
1903		Edinburgh Eve. News 17 Sept. 2/6: A ‘Spanking Machine’. The latest development in progressive American educational methods [...] is a machine for administering corporal punishment.
1909		Franklin & Green ‘I’ve Got the Mumps’ 🎵 I’ve got the mumps – I’ve got the mumps, No spanking or school till I’m well again.
1917		A. Wright diary 23 Mar. Muddy France (1988) 6: Indian and British cavalry [...] looking spick and span, polished and cleaned up, all ready to give Fritz a spanking.
1920		Marvel 12 June 3: You just put that money in your pocket, kid, or it’s a spanking you’ll get from me.
1942		Whizzbang Comics 47: It’s [...] gonna be – poof! – a spanking for dat young rascal.
1942		W. Winchell On Broadway 27 Jan. [synd. col.] They all forecast the spanking the Heinies are going to take at the treaty tables.
1979		A. Payne ‘The Dessert Song’ Minder [TV script] 4: Hang about, someone’s getting a spanking.
1980		A. Payne ‘All Mod Cons’ Minder [TV script] 67: Listen, you smarmy little git, I run into you on my patch, I’ll show you how we dole out a spanking down the rough end of the market.
2006		in D. Seabrook Jack of Jumps (2007) 277: He’s either gonna get a fucking good spanking or he’s gonna get a bullet.