Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a reprimand, a telling off.

1834		Marryat Peter Simple (1911) 21: It was her idea that I should have a confounded wigging and be sent on board.
1842		R. Barham ‘Hermann’ in Ingoldsby Legends III (1866) 454: If you wish to ’scape wigging, a dumb wife’s the dandy .
1858		R.S. Surtees Ask Mamma 412: He [...] went clattering up the stony cross-road to the west, as hard as ever the old Jack could lay legs to the ground, thinking what a wigging he would give Tom if he caught him.
1859		G.F. Atkinson Curry & Rice (3 edn) n.p.: [Y[ou will be edified with a detailed narrative of [...] the wigging administered to young Kirrich.
1864		J.F. Mortlock Experiences of a Convict (1965) 13: We managed to rejoin our comrades; and for having gone without formal permission [...] received a ‘wigging’ from the unpopular commodore.
1870		L. Oliphant Piccadilly 141: I even used to feel it when I was in the diplomatic service, and received a severe ‘wigging.’.
1879		H. Hartigan Stray Leaves (2nd ser.) 72: [T]he whole of the absentees escaped with a good wigging.
1880		Bulletin (Sydney) 21 Aug. 4/4: The Auditor-General also comes in for a ‘wigging’ for having passed the account.
1882		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 7 Oct. 2/2: That was a fine reception Engineer Melville [...] got on his return home—a wigging from a wife the victim of opiates and stimulants.
1884		Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday 10 May15/1: In the manager’s room when they are getting a wigging.
1887		‘’Arry in the Witness-Box’ in Punch 5 Feb. 61/2: Wigging? That isn’t the word. / If I ’adn’t dried up, they’d ’ave offed me to gaol for ‘Contempt’ like a bird.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 96: [W]igging, a reproof.
1899		Kipling ‘Slaves of the Lamp — Part II’ in Complete Stalky & Co. (1987) 295: Stalky was sent up for his wiggin’ like a bad little boy.
1900		Boy’s Own Paper 1 Dec. 133: When he gives you a lecture like that [...] it’s not like an ordinary wigging.
1915		J. Buchan Thirty-Nine Steps (1930) 100: Scotland Yard knows all about me and you’ll get a proper wigging if you interfere with me.
1937		G.D.H. & M. Cole Brothers Sackville 222: Take the wigging which he was beginning to feel he thoroughly deserved.
1956		(con. 1904) R.T. Hopkins Banker Tells All 169: Fearing that the boss would give her a good wigging when he found it.
1989		H. Leonard Out After Dark 136: She had once given me a fearsome wigging for accidentally addressing a Christmas card to ‘Albert Place.’.