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.

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.