blister

English

Etymology

From Middle English blister, from Old French blestre, from a Germanic source. Compare Middle Dutch blyster (“swelling”), Old Norse blastr (“a blowing”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈblɪstə(ɹ)/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈblɪstɚ/
• Rhymes: -ɪstə(ɹ)

Noun

English Wikipedia has an article on:

blister

Wikipedia

blister (countable and uncountable, plural blisters)

1. A 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.

   Hyponyms: bulla, vesicle, vesicula

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

     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.

2. A swelling on a plant.
3. (medicine) Something applied to the skin to raise a blister; a vesicatory or other applied medicine.
   • 1819–1824, [Lord Byron], Don Juan, London, (please specify |canto=I to XVII):

     '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 […]

4. A bubble, as on a painted surface.
5. (roofing) An 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. A type of pre-formed packaging made from plastic that contains cavities.

   blister card

   blister pack

7. A cause of annoyance.
   • 1923, Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, The Inimitable Jeeves‎, page 39:

     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.

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

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

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

     '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.'

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

     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 .

8. (uncountable) A form of smelted copper with a blistered surface.

Synonyms

• bleb
• blain

Derived terms

Descendants

• → Polish: blister

Translations

Verb

blister (third-person singular simple present blisters, present participle blistering, simple past and past participle blistered)

1. (transitive) To raise blisters on.

   a chemical agent that blisters the skin

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

     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.

2. (cooking, transitive) To sear after blaching.
3. (intransitive) To have a blister form.
   • 1980, Robert M. Jones, editor, Walls and Ceilings, Time-Life Books, →ISBN, page 26:

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

   • 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:

     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.

4. (transitive) To criticise severely.
5. (intransitive) To break out in blisters.

Synonyms

• vesicate

Translations

Anagrams

• Bitlers, Bristle, Liberts, bristle, reblits, riblets

Dutch

Dutch Wikipedia has an article on:

blister

Wikipedia ^nl

Etymology

Borrowed from English blister (“blister; blister pack”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈblɪs.tər/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: blis‧ter

Noun

blister m (plural blisters, diminutive blistertje n)

1. blister pack

   Synonyms: doordrukstrip, blisterpak, blisterverpakking

French

Noun

blister m (plural blisters)

1. blister pack

Polish

Polish Wikipedia has an article on:

blister

Wikipedia ^pl

Etymology

Borrowed from English blister.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈblis.tɛr/
• Rhymes: -istɛr
• Syllabification: blis‧ter

Noun

blister m inan

1. blister pack

Declension

Further reading

• blister in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from English blister.

Noun

blister n (plural blistere)

1. blister

Declension