bladder n Cp OED ~ sb 3, EDD 5 (2) for sense 1; OED 2 obs (1000-1607), EDD 4 for sense 3; OED ~ : 9 ~ nose for comb.
   1 Inflated animal bladder used as a mock weapon by Christmas mummers; SWAB n 2.
   1842 BONNYCASTLE i, 139 Some of the masks are very grotesque, and the fools or clowns are furnished with thongs, and bladders, with which they belabour the exterior mob. 1917 Holly Leaves 19-20 ... the oddly garbed figures meanwhile capering in amusing fashion around the hobby-horse ... chasing people and striking them with whips at the ends of some of which were attached inflated bladders.
   2 Blister on the bark of a fir tree containing fluid resin.
   1840 GOSSE 10 Its [fir or balsam] surface is covered with bladders full of a fluid resin. 1846 TOCQUE 123 The turpentine bladders of this tree [fir] are used in cases of fresh cuts and other wounds. C 68-19 People used to say that myrrh found in bladders on fir trees (sometimes called turpentine) had a healing quality. People used to say that this myrrh taken with sugar was a good tonic for T.B. 1972 MURRAY 240 They often made use of 'murre' or the turpentine 'bladders' found on the bark of fir trees to dress the cut.
   3 Pimple or pustule.
   C 69-2 Many of the old people in the community say one should give their blood a spring's cleaning. Many people think that if one has pimples or bladders, etc, it is because their blood is dirty.
   4 Comb bladder-nose: large migratory seal of northern waters with a fold of loose skin on the head of the male; HOODED SEAL.
   1880 The Standard [London] 20 May, p. 3 ... the ground'. . seal, the saddle-back ... the bladder-nose, and the floe rat.

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