blister

plural blisters

1. countableuncountableA small bubble between the layers of the skin that contains watery or bloody fluid and is caused by friction and pressure, burning, freezing, chemical irritation, disease, or infection.

   Inspect them for rub marks and blisters; tape or bandage rub marks; clean the skin around a blister, use a sterilised needle to puncture it at its outer edge and press out the fluid, then bandage.

   1967, Donald Howard Grainger, Don't Die in the Bundu

2. countableuncountableA swelling on a plant.
3. countableuncountablemedicineSomething applied to the skin to raise a blister; a vesicatory or other applied medicine.

   'T is written in the Hebrew Chronicle, / How the physicians, leaving pill and potion, / Prescribed, by way of blister, a young belle, / When old King David's blood grew dull in motion, / And that the medicine answered very well […]

   1819–1824, [Lord Byron], Don Juan, London, (please specify |canto=I to XVII)

4. countableuncountableA bubble, as on a painted surface.
5. countableuncountablebusinessAn enclosed pocket of air, which may be mixed with water or solvent vapor, trapped between impermeable layers of felt or between the membrane and substrate.
6. countableuncountableA type of pre-formed packaging made from plastic that contains cavities.

   blister card

   1 more example

   blister pack

7. countableuncountableA cause of annoyance.

   I will say, however, that we fanned her well — her and her old blister of a mother and a bewhiskered old goat named Boris.

   1933, Collier's Illustrated Weekly, volume 91, page 14

   3 more examples

   I couldn't help thinking how dashed happy I could have contrived to be in this place if only Aunt Agatha and the other blisters had been elsewhere.

   1923, Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, The Inimitable Jeeves, page 39

   'We mustn't laugh about it, my boy. It's no joking matter. It's very wrong to shoot Mr Baxter.' 'But he's a blister.' 'He is a blister,' agreed Lord Emsworth, always fairminded. 'Nevertheless. . . . Remember, he is your tutor.'

   2013, P.G. Wodehouse, Blandings: TV Tie-In, page 126

   Willie suddenly realized the heat really wasn't off the criminal persons, and he sprang into action. The blonde blister also recovered surprisingly fast and threw the big wordy tome at the Klump coco .

   2017, Joe Archibald, The Willie Klump MEGAPACK®, page 302

8. uncountableA form of smelted copper with a blistered surface.

present singular third person blisters · participle present blistering · participle past blistered · past blistered

1. transitiveTo raise blisters on.

   a chemical agent that blisters the skin

   1 more example

   Caliban: As wicked dewe, as ere my mother bruſh'd / With Rauens feather from vnwholeſome Fen / Drop on you both : A Southweſt blow on yee, / And bliſter you all ore.

   1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], page 4

2. transitivecookingTo sear after blaching.
3. intransitiveTo have a blister form.

   A poorly formulated mortar mixture will result in plaster that blisters and cracks.

   1980, Robert M. Jones, editor, Walls and Ceilings, Time-Life Books, →ISBN, page 26

   1 more example

   An overfired glaze often blisters by the volatilization of part of its composition. It also reaches a stage where its viscosity is too low to keep it on the pot.

   2004, Frank Hamer with Janet Hamer, The Potter's Dictionary of Materials and Techniques, 5th edition, London; Philadelphia, Penn.: A & C Black; University of Pennsylvania Press, →ISBN, page 248

4. transitiveTo criticise severely.
5. intransitiveTo break out in blisters.