telling off

noun — 2 senses

telling off

nounalso spelled telling-off

1

Informal A reprimand, reproach, or lecture.

He's going to get quite a telling off if his dad ever finds out about it.

telling-off

noun

1

Idiomatic, Informal An instance of telling someone off, a reprimand or scolding.

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — authors: page histories for telling off and telling-off.