Also 3 blester, 6 bluster, blyster. [ME. blester, blister, perh. a. OF. blestre (‘tumeur, bouton,’ Godef.), also blostre: the double form may be explained as an adoption of ON. blástr, dat. blǽstri ‘swelling,’ also ‘a blast, blowing,’ f. blása to blow (whence also mod.Sw. blåsa, Ger. blase, blister). The 16th-c. variant bluster suggests the MDu. or Flemish bluyster (Kilian), which points to earlier *blûstra, from same root (cf. ON. blístra to whistle). An OE. blǽster, bléster or blýster, cogn. with the ON. or Du., might have been expected, but is not found.]
1. A thin vesicle on the skin, containing serum, caused by friction, a burn, or other injury, or the action of a vesicatory.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 6011 (Gött.). Bile and blester [v.r. blister], bolnand sare.
a. 1500[?]. Flower & Leaf, lix. For blisters of the Sunne brenninge, Very good … ointmentes.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 61. There is a blyster rysen vnder the tounge.
1561. Hollybush, Hom. Apoth., 22 b. Good … agaynst blusters or reed pustuls.
1664. Dryden, Riv. Ladies, III. i. (1725), 216. This Hand would rise in Blisters shouldst thou touch it.
1810. Henry, Elem. Chem., II. 371. Acetic acid, thus prepared … raises a blister when applied to the skin.
1884. W. C. Smith, Kildrostan, 88. Your wet ropes And clumsy oars … give blisters first And then a horny hand.
2. A similar swelling, containing fluid or (more usually) air, on the surface of a plant, on metal after cooling, a painted surface, and the like.
1597. Gerard, Herbal, III. cxvi. (1633), 1480. On these leaves … grow blisters or small bladders.
1671. Ray, Philos. Lett. (1718), 97. I had thought that the Kermes-berry had been a Blister of the Bark of the Oak.
1678. Ripley Reviv’d, 155. Our compound in this heat riseth in blisters.
1799. G. Smith, Laborat., I. 148. The paste would be cloudy and full of blisters.
1885. Athenæum, 30 May, 704/2. Nor is this cracking all the mischief which has lately befallen this picture;… there is rather a large blister.
3. Med. Anything applied to raise a blister; a vesicatory.
1541. R. Copland, Guydon’s Quest. Chirurg. And the blysters potencyall cauteres be applyed.
1758. Whytt, in Phil. Trans., L. 570. I advised a blister to be applied.
1875. H. Wood, Therap. (1879), 561. Blisters are especially useful in inflammations of serous membranes.
4. Comb., as blister-beetle, -fly, an insect used for raising blisters, spec. the Spanish fly (Cantharis vesicatoria); blister-copper, copper having a blistered surface, obtained during smelting just before the final operation; hence attrib. blister-copper ore; blister-plant, a name for different species of Ranunculus, esp. R. acris, R. sceleratus; blister-plaster, a plaster for raising a blister; blister-steel, steel having a blistered surface, obtained during the process of converting iron into shear-steel or cast-steel; attrib. blister-steel furnace.
1816. Kirby & Sp., Entomol. (1843), I. 31. If the apothecary cannot distinguish a … *blister-beetle from a Carabus.
1861. J. Percy, Metall., I. 325. The *blister-copper is tapped into sand-moulds.
1875. Ure, Dict. Arts (ed. 7), I. 398. *Blister Copper-ore, a botryoidal variety of copper-pyrites.
1862. Coleman, Woodlands, 23. The brilliant *Blister-fly … is only very sparingly met with in this country.
1796. Wolcott (P. Pindar), Sat., Wks. 1812, III. 390. He Gilead’s Balm; but you a *Blister-plaster.
1837. Brewster, Magnet., 319. Needles of shear steel received a greater magnetic force than those of *blister steel.
1880. C. M. Mason, Forty Spires, 65. When the bars are removed from the furnace they are in a blistered state; they are known as blister-steel.
1831. J. Holland, Manuf. Metals, I. 230. When the iron has absorbed a quantity of carbon in the *blister steel furnace.
