different between blob vs blister

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /bl?b/

  Rhymes: -?b

• (US) IPA^(key): /bl?b/
• Homophone: BLOB

Etymology 1

Possibly formed through mimesis, similarly to bleb and blubber.

Noun

blob (plural blobs)

1. A shapeless or amorphous mass; a vague shape or amount, especially of a liquid or semisolid substance; a clump, group or collection that lacks definite shape.
   • 1869: Norman Lockyer et al, Nature

     Only the outermost blob on either side in map 2 displays misalignment.

   • 1895: The Annual of the British School at Athens

     It was a colourful vase with red and white hoops on the lid, and red bands above and below the main frieze. These bands also carry a metope pattern in white of triple lines and blobs, which can just be distinguished on the photographs.
2. (astronomy) A large cloud of gas.
   1. Ellipsis of extended Lyman-Alpha blob (a huge body of gas that may be the precursor to a galaxy).
3. (dialect) A bubble; a bleb.
4. A small freshwater fish (Cottus bairdii); the miller's thumb.
5. The partially inflated air bag used in the sport of blobbing.
6. (sports, slang) A score of zero.
   • 1925, Punch (volume 168, page 561)

     A gentleman named W. Shakespeare scored a blob in the Worcestershire v. Lancashire match. We understand that he got out because the ball pitched on a "damned spot."

Derived terms

• bloblike
• blobby

Translations

See also

• cluster

Verb

blob (third-person singular simple present blobs, present participle blobbing, simple past and past participle blobbed)

1. (transitive) To drop in the form of a blob or blobs
   • 1957, "War of Nerves," Time, 7 October, 1957, [3]

     […] a cross has been burned during the night on Wechsler's lawn and a painted KKK blobbed across one wall of his home.

2. (transitive) To drop a blob or blobs onto, cover with blobs.
   • 1959, "The Big Appel," Time, 7 December, 1959, [5]

     Asked to do a mural in the coffee room of the Municipal Museum, Appel responded by blobbing all four walls and the ceiling with brilliant colors […]

3. (intransitive) To fall in the form of a blob or blobs.
   • 1964, A. S. Byatt, The Shadow of the Sun, Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1991, Chapter Three, p. 47,

     Caroline began to separate eggs, cracking them into unbelievably even halves, sliding the gold, round and elastic, from shell to shell, whilst the white hung, heavy, translucent, in thick sheets, and blobbed suddenly into her basin.

   • 2013, Marcus Berkmann, "Blood and gore of the real 'who dunnits'," Review of Silent Witnesses by Nigel McCrery, Daily Mail, 22 August, 2013, [6]

     […] whether the blood has splashed, or blobbed, or trickled, can reveal whether the victim was killed here or moved afterwards.

4. (intransitive, slang) To relax idly and mindlessly; to veg out.

Translations

Etymology 2

Noun

blob (plural blobs)

1. Alternative spelling of BLOB

References

Anagrams

• Lobb

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?bl?st?/
• Rhymes: -?st?(r)

Noun

blister (plural blisters)

1. 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.
   • 1967, Donald Howard Grainger, Don't Die in the Bundu

     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.

2. A swelling on a plant.
3. (medicine) Something applied to the skin to raise a blister; a vesicatory or other applied medicine.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Dunglison to this entry?)

   • 1819, Lord Byron, Don Juan, I.168:

     '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 […]

4. A bubble, as on a painted surface.
5. (roofing) 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.
6. A type of pre-formed packaging made from plastic that contains cavities.

7. a cause of annoyance
   • 1923 Pelham Grenville Wodehouse The Inimitable Jeeves page 39

     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.

   • 1933 Collier's Illustrated Weekly, Volume 91 page 14

     I will say, however, that we fanned her well — her and her old blister of a mother and a bewhisk- ered old goat named Boris.

   • 2013 P.G. Wodehouse, Blandings: TV Tie-In page 126

     'We mustn't laugh about it, my boy. It's no joking matter. It's very wrong to shoot Mr Baxter.'
     'But he's a blister.'
     'He is a blister,' agreed Lord Emsworth, always fairminded. 'Nevertheless. . . . Remember, he is your tutor.'

   • 2017 Joe Archibald, The Willie Klump MEGAPACK® page 302

     Willie suddenly realized the heat really wasn't off the criminal persons, and he sprang into action. The blonde blister also recovered surprisingly fast and threw the big wordy tome at the Klump coco .

Synonyms

• bleb
• blain

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

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

1. (transitive) To raise blisters on.
2. (intransitive) To have a blister form.
3. (transitive) To criticise severely.
4. (intransitive) To break out in blisters.

Synonyms

• vesicate

Translations

Anagrams

• Bitlers, Bristle, Liberts, bristle, reblits, riblets

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English blister (“blister; blister pack”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?bl?s.t?r/
• Hyphenation: blis?ter

Noun

blister m (plural blisters, diminutive blistertje n)

1. blister pack

   Synonyms: doordrukstrip, blisterpak, blisterverpakking

French

Noun

blister m (plural blisters)

1. blister pack

Polish

Etymology

From English blister.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?bl?i.st?r/

Noun

blister m inan

1. blister pack

Declension

Further reading

• blister in Wielki s?ownik j?zyka polskiego, Instytut J?zyka Polskiego PAN
• blister in Polish dictionaries at PWN