[syn: call on the carpet, take to task, rebuke, rag, trounce, reproof, lecture, reprimand, jaw, dress down, call down, scold, chide, berate, bawl out, remonstrate, chew out, chew up, have words, lambaste, lambast]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Trounce \Trounce\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Trounced; p. pr. & vb.
   n. Trouncing.] [F. tronce, tronche, a stump, piece of wood.
   See Truncheon.]
   To punish or beat severely; to whip smartly; to flog; to
   castigate. [Colloq.]
   [1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
trounce
    v 1: beat severely with a whip or rod; "The teacher often
         flogged the students"; "The children were severely
         trounced" [syn: flog, welt, whip, lather, lash,
         slash, strap, trounce]
    2: come out better in a competition, race, or conflict; "Agassi
       beat Becker in the tennis championship"; "We beat the
       competition"; "Harvard defeated Yale in the last football
       game" [syn: beat, beat out, crush, shell, trounce,
       vanquish]
    3: censure severely or angrily; "The mother scolded the child
       for entering a stranger's car"; "The deputy ragged the Prime
       Minister"; "The customer dressed down the waiter for bringing
       cold soup" [syn: call on the carpet, take to task,
       rebuke, rag, trounce, reproof, lecture,
       reprimand, jaw, dress down, call down, scold,
       chide, berate, bawl out, remonstrate, chew out,
       chew up, have words, lambaste, lambast]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
92 Moby Thesaurus words for "trounce":
   assail, attack, baste, bastinado, bear the palm, beat,
   beat all hollow, beat hollow, belabor, belt, best, birch, blister,
   buffet, cane, castigate, clobber, club, cowhide, cudgel, cut,
   defeat, destroy, do in, drub, excoriate, fix, flagellate, flail,
   flay, flog, fustigate, give a whipping, give the stick, hide,
   hors de combat, horsewhip, knout, lace, lambaste, lash, lather,
   lay on, lick, outclass, outdo, outfight, outgeneral, outmaneuver,
   outpoint, outrun, outsail, outshine, overwhelm, pistol-whip,
   pommel, pummel, put, rawhide, roast, ruin, scarify, scathe, scorch,
   scourge, settle, shellac, skin, skin alive, slash, smite, spank,
   strap, stripe, swinge, switch, take the cake, thrash, thump, trim,
   triumph, triumph over, truncheon, undo, walk all over, wallop,
   whale, whip, whomp, whop, win, worst