Forms: 1 blédræ, (blédre), blǽdre, -ddre, 3–4 bleddre, 4–5 bleddere, bladdre, 5 bled-, bladdyr, bladdur(e, ? blowre, 5–6 bledder, 6 blader, bladdare, 6–7 blather, (Sc. 6 bleddir, 8– blather, blether), 5– bladder. [Com. Teut.: OE., WSax. blǽdre, blæddre, Anglian blédre, wk. fem. = OSax. *blâdra, (MLG. blâder, bladder, MDu. blâder(e, Du. blaar, Flem. bladder), OHG. blâtara (MHG. blâtere, blâttere, mod.G. blatter), ON. bláðra (Sw. bläddra, Da. blære):—OTeut. *blǽ-drôn-, f. verb. stem blǽ- to BLOW + -drôn suffix denoting instrument, cogn. w. Gr. -τρα, -τρον. The dialectal variation in OE. blédre, blǽdre, remained in the ME. bledder, bladder (both having the vowel shortened by position); blather, blether (still used in Scotland) may represent the ON. form, but is more probably an instance of the fluctuation of d and ð, in conjunction with r, seen in comparing father, mother, feather, hither, with ME. fader, moder, feder, hider.]
1. A membranous bag in the animal body.
a. orig. The musculo-membranous bag which serves as the receptacle of the urinary fluid secreted by the kidneys. Called also urinary bladder.
a. 700. Epinal Gloss. (O. E. Texts), 1077. Vessica, bledrae. Corpus Gl., 2101. Vesica, bledre.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., I. 360. Wið blæddran sare ʓenim eoferes blædran mid þam micʓan.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., V. xliv. (1495), 161. Euery beest that gendryth hath a bladder. Ibid., VII. lv. 268. Yf they come of the bledder.
c. 1420. Pallad. on Husb., I. 54. Yf langoure in thaire bledders ought awake.
1519. Horman, Vulg., iii. 32. The payne of the stone that cometh of dropynge of the bladder.
1530. Palsgr., 904. The bledder, la uessie.
1570. Levins, Manip., 28. Bladdare, Blader, vesica.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 546. The bladder of a wilde Boar … The blather of a Goat.
1718. Pope, Iliad, V. 88. Between the bladder and the bone it pass’d.
1782. Burns, Death Poor Mailie, 64. For thy pains, thou’se get my blather. Ibid. (1785), Sc. Drink, xvii. May gravels round his blather wrench!
1842. E. Wilson, Anat. Vade M., 541. The Bladder is an oblong membranous viscus of an ovoid shape.
b. Any membranous bag in the animal body; usually with distinctive adjunct, as gall-, air-, swimming-bladder.
1661. Lovell, Hist. Anim. & Min., 232. A bladder in them full of spawn.
1668. Culpepper & Cole, Barthol. Anat., II. vi. 106. The first bladder of the Heart.
1797. Baillie, Morb. Anat. (1807), 250. The gall-bladder is sometimes distended with bile.
1847. Carpenter, Zool., § 527. In the organisation of Fishes … the swimming bladder is situated in the abdomen.
1869. Nicholson, Zool., xxv. (1880), 250. Rotifera … In the hinder part of the body … is a sac or vesicle, which is termed the ‘contractile bladder.’
† 2. A morbid vesicle containing liquid or putrid matter; a boil, blister, pustule. Obs.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Ex. ix. 9. On mannum and on nytenum beoð wunda and swellende blæddran.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., I. 86. Uncuþum blædrum ðe on mannes nebbe sittað.
1388. Wyclif, Ex. ix. 10. Woundis of bolnynge bladdris weren maad in men & in werk beestis.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 62. A bladder full of water two inches longe and more.
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb. (1586), 167. All swelling as it were with little blathers.
1606. Shaks., Tr. & Cr., V. i. 24. Dirt rotten livers … bladders full of imposthume.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 419. The pimples or bladders which arise in the bites of a Shrew.
1880. Syd. Soc. Lex., s.v., Bladder in the throat, old American term for cynanche.
b. (see quot.)
a. 1722. Lisle, Observ. Husb. (1757), 343 (E.D.S.). A distemper that falls on a bullock in the spring … which they in their country call the bladder; the bullock will be taken with a swelling of his lips, and running of his mouth, and swelling of his eyes, and running of them.
3. The prepared bladder of an animal, which may be inflated and used from its buoyancy as a float; also as the wind-bag of a simple kind of bag-pipe, as a receptacle for lard, etc.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 282. A bleddre ibollen ful of winde ne duueð nout.
c. 1425. Seven Sag. (P.), 2181. Grete blowen bladdyrs he brake And thay gave a gret crake.
a. 1520. Myrr. Our Ladye, 17. Though hys harte were stretched out … as a blather full of wynde.
1595. Spenser, Col. Clout, 717. Bladders blowen up with wynd, That being prickt do vanish into noughts.
1613. Shaks., Hen. VIII., III. ii. 359. Little wanton Boyes that swim on bladders.
1717. Lady M. W. Montagu, Lett., xxxvii. I. 145. As if a foreigner should take his ideas of English music from the bladder and string.
1782. Wolcott (P. Pindar), 3d Ode to R.A.’s. Learn to squeeze the colours from the bladders.
1783. Cowper, Task, I. 585. With dance, And music of the bladder and the bag.
1862. Mrs. Beeton, Cookery Bk., § 194. Put it [lard] into small jars or bladders for use.
4. The substance of a sheep’s or ox’s bladder used for air-tight coverings.
1769. Mrs. Raffald, Eng. Housekpr. (1778), 347. Tie them down with a bladder and paper over it.
1796. Mrs. Glasse, Cookery, xviii. 294. Cover them close with a bladder and leather.
1827. Faraday, Chem. Manip., xviii. 477. Moistened bladder is in constant requisition.
5. A filmy cavity full of air, a vesicle, a bubble.
1702. Lond. Gaz., No. 3776/4. Looking-Glass Plates … free from Bladders, Veins, and Fowlness.
1761. Churchill, Rosciad, 870. Behold the pipe-drawn bladders circling swim.
1856. Enquire Within (1862), 82. If little bladders appear, it has attained that degree.
6. fig. Anything inflated and hollow, like a blown-up bladder.
1589. Pappe w. Hatchet (1844), 27. A bladder of worldlie winde which swells in their hearts.
1627. Sanderson, Serm., I. 283. Prick the bladder of our pride.
1649. G. Daniel, Trinarch., Rich. II., clxxvii. Hee … With former Titles swolne, vnwillingly Would loose that Bladder.
1734. Pope, Donne Sat., iv. 205. Such as swell this bladder of a court.
b. An inflated pretentious man; ‘a wind-bag.’
1579. Tomson, Calvin’s Serm. Tim., 279/2. Them that are harebraines and bladders full of winde.
1616. R. C., Times’ Whis., iii. 1115. Thou bladder full puft vp with vanity.
1840. Dickens, Barn. Rudge, lxii. My friend the noble captain—the illustrious general—the bladder.
7. Bot. a. The inflated pericarp of some plants.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, III. xc. 444. The flowers bring foorth rounde balles, or blasted bladders.
1867. Baker, Nile Tribut., ii. 30. This vegetable silk is contained in a soft pod or bladder about the size of an orange.
b. A hollow vesicle occurring as an appendage of several plants, as the genus Utricularia, and various sea-weeds. Cf. AIR-BLADDER.
1789. Lightfoot, Flora Scot., II. 904. Bladder Fucus … In the disc or surface are immersed hollow sphærical or oval air-bladders.
1854. Balfour, Bot., § 973. 473. Bladderworts … so called on account of the utricles or bladders connected with the leaves.
1875. Darwin, Insectiv. Pl., xvii. The real use of the bladders is to capture small aquatic animals.
† 8. ? A plant. Obs.
a. 1500. in Wr.-Wülcker, Voc., 568. Berula, Bleddere. [Berula = ‘a herb, called also cardamine.’]
9. Attrib. and Comb., as bladder chops; bladderless, -like, -puffed, adjs.
1549. Latimer, Serm. bef. Edw. VI. (Arb.), 66. These bledder puffed vp wylye men.
1610. Healey, St. Aug. Citie of God, 607. All the bladder-like humors of vaine glory.
1611. Wom. is Weather Cock, IV. ii. in Hazl., Dodsl., II. 67. Thy bladder-chops and thy robustious words.
1698. J. Petiver, in Phil. Trans., XX. 324. A turgid bladder-like Pod.
1847. Todd, Cycl. Anat. & Phys., III. 253/2. The bladder scirrhus of Dr. Benedict is nothing more than this form of hydatid disease.
1881. Jrnl. Botany, X. 28. Bladderless and thick-leaved.
10. Special comb., as bladder-angling, fishing with a hook fixed to an inflated bladder; bladder-brand, a local name of the Bunt; bladder-campion, the common book-name of Silene inflata, from the inflated calyx; bladder-fern, a fern of the genus Cystopteris, from their bladder-like indusia; bladder-fish, apparently a variety of the globe-fish, Tetraodon ocellatus; bladder-glass, a glass vessel covered at one end with a piece of bladder, for showing the atmospheric pressure, by the bursting in of the bladder when the air is exhausted from the vessel; bladder-green, a green pigment obtained from the Common Buckthorn (Rhamnus catharticus), sap-green; bladder-herb, a name of the Winter Cherry, from its inflated calyx; bladder-hole (see quot.); bladder-kelp (= bladder-wrack); bladder-nose, a species of seal; bladder-nut, the fruit of a kind of shrub, Staphylea pinnata, contained in bladder-like pods; also the shrub itself; bladder-plum (see quot.); bladder-pot, English name of the Physolobium, a species of Leguminosæ of South-west Australia; the American Bladder-pod is Vesicaria Shortii; bladder-seed, English name of the Physospermum, from the loose outer coating of the undeveloped fruit; bladder-senna, the Colutea arborescens, so called from its distended pods, and the fact that its leaves are sometimes mixed with senna leaves; Sutherlandia frutescens, a showy shrub of the Cape of Good Hope is found in English gardens under the name of the Cape Bladder-senna (Treas. Bot.); bladder-snout (= bladder-wort); bladder-tangle (= bladder-wrack); bladder-tree, the North American species of the Bladder-nut tree (Staphylea trifoliata); bladder-weed (= bladder-wrack): bladderwort, a genus of water-plants, Utricularia [of which the word is a mod. transl.], distinguished by the small bags on roots, stems, and leaves, filled with air, which keep them afloat during the period of flowering; bladder-wrack, a species of sea-weed (Fucus vesiculosus), with air bladders in the substance of the fronds.
1883. Gd. Words, Nov., 736/1. It [bunt] is known by various names in different parts of the country, as smut-balls, *bladder-brand, stinking-rust, &c.
1770. in Phil. Trans., LX. 526. The … property of rendring the poison of the *bladder-fish … more virulent.
1854. J. Scoffern, in Orr’s Circ. Sc., Chem., 296. If a *bladder-glass … be laid flat on the plate of an air-pump … the full force of atmospheric pressure will take place externally on the tense membrane.
1830. Lindley, Nat. Syst. Bot., 114. The green colour known under the name of *Bladder-green.
1789. Mills, in Phil. Trans., LXXX. 97. Higher up the hill is an hard chert, with a kind of *bladder-holes.
1835. Kirby, Hab. & Inst. Anim., I. ix. 294. [Periwinkles] appear to make the *bladder-kelp … a kind of submarine pasture.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, VI. lx. 735. Of the *Bladder Nut.
1741. Compl. Fam. Piece, II. iii. 374. Several other Trees and Shrubs … are now in Flower, as … Bladder Nut.
1869. Masters, Veg. Terat., 465. The stone of plums is occasionally deficient, as in what are termed *bladder-plums; some of these, consisting merely of a thin bladder, are curiously like the pods of Colutea.
1794. Martyn, Rousseau’s Bot., xxv. 360. Common *Bladder-Sena has an arboreous stem … It grows twelve or fourteen feet high.
1857. Kingsley, Two Y. Ago, I. 259. Every sea-snail crept to hide itself under the *bladder-tangle.
1815. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 5), IV. 90/1. Common *bladder-wort, or hooded milfoil, grows in stagnant waters.
1839. G. Francis, Eng. Flora, 1. The curious Bladderwort, the roots of which are furnished with little air bags.
1789. Lightfoot, Flora Scot., II. 904. *Bladder Fucus or Common Sea Wrack.
1810. Edin. Rev., XVII. 146. The prickly tang … often grows intermixed with the *bladder-wrack.
