bollocking
British and Irish slang for a severe verbal dressing-down, typically from a superior to a subordinate.
Seen in the wild
Definitions
British and Irish slang for a severe verbal dressing-down, typically from a superior to a subordinate. Getting a bollocking is considerably worse than a simple reprimand. Widely used in workplaces, the military, and sports contexts; while vulgar in origin, it has a workaday acceptability in informal British speech.
The manager gave him a proper bollocking in front of the entire team after the mistake cost them the match.
Comments
(UK, Ireland, vulgar) A severe reprimand.
“What on earth is the reason for stopping your posts? Whoever told you to stop needs a bollocking”
“Rachel Reeves gives Scott Pissant a bollocking over the whole increasingly farcical Iran thang......”
Comments
Used in
Have a better definition?
Add your own interpretation of "bollocking".
🇬🇧About British & Irish slang slang
UK and Irish slang — Cockney, Scouse, Geordie, Yorkshire, Glaswegian, Brummie, Welsh, West Country, plus Irish English. Centuries of regional dialects feeding into modern British and Irish street talk.
See all British & Irish slang slang on Slangora.
Tags
Other words near "bollocking" (B)
Browse all slang words starting with B.
Related terms
People also read
Semantically related
- bollock83%
(transitive, UK, Ireland, vulgar) To reprimand severely and grossly.
- rollicking79%
(UK) A scolding, a bollocking.
- bollocked mode77%
A state of being severely told off, punished, or in deep trouble — used in British slang contexts to describe the period after getting a serious dressing-down from a boss, parent, or authority figure. Implies total shutdown, sheepishness, and lying low after a public or private scolding.
- bollocked74%
(British, Irish, Commonwealth, vulgar, slang) Exhausted.