Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to punish, to hurt; also as excl. blister them!blister me! etc; thus blistered adj., punished, hurt.

1702		S. Centlivre Beau’s Duel III i: Rat this Blockhead, what a Metamorphosis is here; ’tis well I fell upon my Cloak, or I had daub’d all my Cloaths, blister me.
1823		Sydney Gaz. 30 Oct. 4/1: Blister me, if this woudn’t be better to read than lots of stuff about the French and Spanish quarrels.
1825		C.M. Westmacott Eng. Spy I 178: Well, blister the mare, Dick!
1829		Bell’s Life in London 19 Apr. 2/1: ‘Curse you, you old brute!’ ‘And blister you, you old faggot!’.
1837		‘Handy Andy’ Bentley’s Misc. Feb. 173: I tell you I’ll blister him.
1841		W.J. Neale Paul Periwinkle 358: Blister their eyes, says I.
1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 14 May n.p.: The Doctor blistered at all points and Berry scracely showing a mark.
1855		Broadway Belle (NY) 24 Sept. n.p.: Wal, blister me.
1872		‘Mark Twain’ Screamers (1875) 46: She uttered a wild sad wail [...] ‘Sivinty-foive dollars for stooffin’ Dan, blister their sowls!’.
1875		Arizona Sentinel (Yuma, AZ) 20 Nov. 4/1: Git up, you lazy, snorin’ hound, you, or I’ll blister your hide.
1899		Kipling ‘The Last Term’ Complete Stalky & Co. (1987) 269: Blister my kidneys. It is a frost. The dahlias are dead!
1905		E.W. Hornung Thief in the Night (1992) 383: He’ll be lucky if he ever gets up, blight and blister him!
1905		Sun. Times (Perth) 8 Oct. 4/8: Blister me, she’s ’ot!
1931		B. Lubbock Bully Hayes 58: No, blister me, he ain’t.
1934		O. Strange Sudden 169: Hell blister their lousy hides.
1940		O. Strange Sudden Takes the Trail 59: Hell blast an’ blister the luck.
1948		Z.N. Hurston Seraph on the Suwanee (1995) 678: You need that little rump of yourn blistered good for you.
1952		J. Jones From Here to Eternity (1998) 367: Must be the change of life, he thought, you having one of those like use to blister poor sister.
1954		Wodehouse Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit 73: Blister his blighted insides!

2. (also put the blister on) to criticise, to attack (verbally); thus blistering n., a verbal attack.

1854		N.Y. Pick (NY) 29 Apr. n.p.: No content with sacrificing us [...] they actually ‘blister’ our literature.
1913		Dakota County Herald (NE) 4 Apr. 3/1: I’m an ugly blighter when I find I’m being blistered.
1943		H.A. Smith Life in a Putty Knife Factory (1948) 14: She in turn gave me a blistering.
1944		D. Runyon Runyon à la Carte 109: I understand it is always about nine to five that you will put the blister on a new play.
1955		B. Schulberg On the Waterfront (1964) 246: I hear you really blistered him in the Longdock.
1964		S. Woodward Paper Tiger 227: [The bomb] did not explode; however, the admiral did. He called Flynn and blistered him for twenty minutes.
1974		A. Pierrepoint Executioner 200: Once I had to teach my own assistant the respect necessary for the dead [...] I blistered him until he was white in the face.
1996		H. Roth From Bondage 273: What did the Irish nationalists do about Yeats and about Synge’s plays? They excoriated them, they blistered them. Please!
2000		Observer Mag. 11 June 17: I got the same blistering when I said I wished he wouldn’t use ‘dictionary’ words.
2012		S. Blass Pirate for Life 123: Dave Giusti would argue with [Roberto] Clemente, and he’s pulling up as much as Italian as he can, while Clemente is just blistering back at him in Spanish.

3. to be summoned, fined or punished for an offence.

1938		F.D. Sharpe Sharpe of the Flying Squad 329: Blistered, served with a summons.
1938		J. Curtis They Drive by Night 183: I’ve heard of drivers getting blistered for that.
1950		P. Hoskins No Hiding Place! 192/2: To be Blistered. To be summoned.