Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a severe telling off, a scolding.

1947		J. Maclaren-Ross Of Love And Hunger 23: Playfair’s been raising ruddy hell. Gave me a god-awful rolluxing Monday.
1958		C. Lee diary 9 Feb. in Eight Bells & Top Masts (2001) 51: The Mate saw me and gave me a bollocking and told me to go inside.
1965		L. Dunne Goodbye to The Hill (1966) 37: The oul’ fella tried to give me a ballocking, but she told him to shut up.
1965		G. Melly Owning Up (1974) 111: Mike Lawrence, the singer who had been given such a bollocking by Doreen Porter’s mum.
1974		G.F. Newman You Flash Bastard 47: He raised some reports and motioned Sneed into a chair with them. That was a good sign, he obviously wasn’t about to be censured; ballockings were received in a very upright position before the DCS’s desk.
1978		in Robins & Cohen Knuckle Sandwich 10: If you’re late you get a bollocking.
1985		J. Sullivan ‘To Hull and Back’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] Is it my fault you married a wrong ’un? It’s no reason to give me a bolly.
1986		F. Taylor Auf Wiedersehen Pet Two 42: I’m in for a right bollocking here.
1993		M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read How to Shoot Friends 28: I waited in trepidation for the bollocking I thought I’d get.
1999		Guardian G2 23 Nov. 16: Someone cared enough to give him a good bollocking.
2004		Guardian G2 27 Apr. 4: ‘It’s not about bullying,’ says Ramsey of his ‘bollockings’.
2012		D. O’Donnell Locked Ward (2013) 224: ‘Got over that bollocking Geraldine gave you?’ ‘Wow! [...] she was angry all right. Tore strips off me’.
2017		L. McInerney Blood Miracles 56: He hauls Tony Cusack out of Ryan’s head and into his bollocking.
2018		G. Gilmore Base Nature [ebook] ‘[S]he’ll produce someone too important to wear a uniform what’ll give us a bollocking’.
2019		A. Parks February’s Son 310: Short version of the bollocking was simple. His fate as a polis depended on whether Lomax made a formal complaint.
2020		A. Parks Bobby March Will Live Forever 104: ‘Word is they were about to pull Raeburn in for a bollocking’.
2021		P Howard Braywatch 100: ‘[M]y daughter gave him a serious bollocking’.