Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also blight) a living creature, usu. human but also animals, usu. derog.

1894		Truth (Sydney) 4 Mar. 1/3: Old Jabez Spencer Balfour, blighter blighted, / At last, is really to be extradited.
1899		W.F. Shannon Mess Deck 178: ‘There’s a blighter for ye !’ whispered Casey.
1904		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 27 Jan. 8/5: ‘’E’s trying to earn ’is marketing money, pore old blighter!’ .
1905		Sporting Times 4 Feb. 1/5: Last Monday a poor blighter of a struggling baritone did the first-turn-after-breakfast at a big house where the acting-manager alone sat in the front row of the stalls.
1913		‘Lord Ballyrot in Slangland’ in Tacoma Times (WA) 12 July 4/4: The bally blighter on boarded responded [...] in this fashion.
1915		Truth (Brisbane) 25 July 12: [headline] First Battalion of Brisbane Blighters / Regiments of Rooks and Crooks.
1916		J. Buchan Greenmantle (1930) 175: We drank to the health of Prince Rupprecht, the same blighter I was trying to do in at Loos.
1917		A. Brazil Madcap of the School 167: ‘Look here, Raymonde, you’re a young blighter yourself sometimes, but you don’t go in for this kind of rubbish’.
1922		B. Hecht A Thousand and One Afternoons [ebook] ‘Barry, old top, if you will chase the blighter after another highball, I'll drink your excellent health’.
1926		Boys’ Realm 16 Jan. 267: ‘Surly blighter!’ muttered Jack.
1928		R. Hall Well of Loneliness (1976) 46: Now go quiet, you young blight!
1930		W.S. Maugham Bread-Winner Act I: Let the little blighter say what he likes.
1930		L. Lower Here’s Luck 81: ‘Come here, you blighter!’ I shouted.
1930		N. Lindsay Redheap (1965) 38: ‘Time the old blighter was put on the shelf,’ said Henry, scowling.
1940		V. Hodgson Diaries (1999) 15 Oct. 67: I shall sleep if bombs fall round my bed! Blighters are here again, but not quite so active.
1944		E. Wilson 17 July [synd. col.] ‘You’re the third bloody blightuh that’s ahsked me that today’.
1948		C. Day Lewis Otterbury Incident 34: ‘Look yurr,’ he said, ‘was it by any chance you little blighters who broke into my yard this morning?’.
1953		H. Tracy Mind You, I’ve Said Nothing (1961) 74: ‘Blighters are shy,’ said Tabs. ‘The fishing has gone to pot,’ said Guffy.
1954		Oh Boy! No. 21 3: Phew! That was a narrow squeak!! I wonder if the blighter saw me bale out.
1960		Wodehouse Jeeves in the Offing 123: Chuck the blighter out of the window and we want to see him bounce.
1971		Wodehouse Much Obliged, Jeeves 16: What blighters babies are, Bertie, dribbling, as they do.
1980		M. Bail Homesickness (1999) 201: They’re little blighters now.
1989		T. Blacker Fixx 197: Cane seems a bit tough on the little blighters.
1999		Guardian Guide 31 July–6 Aug. 52: The little blighter is about to sink his teeth into his jugular.
2000		Indep. Rev. 5 Feb. 3: The least the blighter can do is eat proper English food.
2012		A. Bergen ‘Dread Fellow Churls’ in Crime Factory: Hard Labour [ebook] I’d [...] laid out the blighter with a cricket bat.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 161: [I]t’s too late now. The blighter popped his clogs in a coach crash outside Ghent.

2. an object, usu. dismissive.

1999		K. Sampson Powder 14: Money to get the CD cut and manufactured. Money to mail the blighter out.
2000		Hip-Hop Connection Jan./Feb. 33: There were thousands of the blighters.
2006		thelondonpaper 20 Nov. 16: It’s a blighter to explain.
2009		R. Milward Ten Storey Love Song 176: [of MDMA pills] He’s still got five of the blighters in his back pocket.