blister

/ˈblɪstə(ɹ)/US/ˈblɪstɚ/

blister noun: 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.

Noun

blister (countable and uncountable, plural blisters)

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.
- 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
A swelling on a plant.
Something 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)
A bubble, as on a painted surface.
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.
A type of pre-formed packaging made from plastic that contains cavities.
- blister card
- blister pack
A cause of annoyance.
- 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
- 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
(uncountable) A form of smelted copper with a blistered surface.

Verb

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

(transitive) To raise blisters on.
- a chemical agent that blisters the skin
- 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...
(transitive) To sear after blaching.
(intransitive) To 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
- 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
(transitive) To criticise severely.
(intransitive) To break out in blisters.

blister meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

blister in Hindi

bubble on the skin: छाला chālā, फफोला phapholā
bubble on a painted surface: पपड़ी papṛī

blister in Tamil

bubble on the skin: கொப்புளம் koppuḷam

blister in Urdu

bubble on the skin: چھالا chālā

blister in Bengali

ফোস্কা

More languagesFewer languages

blister in Malayalam: തൊലിയിന്മേലുണ്ടാകുന്ന കുമിള, പൊള്ളൽ കാരണമുള്ളത്, ചെടിയിൽ വീക്കം
blister in Kannada: ಬೊಕ್ಕೆ, ಬೊಬ್ಬೆ, ಹೊಪ್ಪಳೆ, ಕುಪ್ಪಳ
blister in Assamese: ফোঁহা phü̃ha
blister in Tagalog: paltos, libtos, libtok
blister in Arabic: بَطْبَاطَة baṭbāṭa, نَفْطَة nafṭa
blister in Persian: تاول tâval
blister in Thai: ผด pòt, ตุ่ม dtùm, พุพอง

Examples of blister in a sentence

The blisters on my foot made it a problem to walk without a cane.
Having ridden the horse all day for the first time, I had painful blisters on my backside.
The new shoe rubbed up a blister on the back of his foot.

All 40 example sentences with blister

Synonyms of blister

Forms of blister

Noun
plural	blisters
Verb
third-person singular present	blisters
present participle	blistering
past participle	blistered
past	blistered

Plural of blister: blisters

Origin of blister

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

Phrases with blister

3 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with blister

4 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about blister

What does blister mean?: Blister means 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.
What is blister in Hindi?: Blister in Hindi is छाला (chālā), फफोला (phapholā), पपड़ी (papṛī). See Blister meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is blister?: Blister can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce blister?: Blister is pronounced /ˈblɪstə(ɹ)/ (UK).
What is the plural of blister?: The plural of blister is blisters.

Words near blister in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: blister (page history and authors); blister (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); blister (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); blister (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-blister.wav.

Cite this entry: “blister.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/blister. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.