What does "blazes" mean in "Stay the blazes home!"

Solution 1:

Christine Ammer, The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms, second edition (2013) reports that the expression "hot as blazes" dates to the middle of the nineteenth century and suggests that it is actually several decades older than the less euphemistic "hot as hell":

hot as blazes Also, hot as hell. Extremely warm, as in It was hot as blazes in that room, or I'm hot as hell and would love a cold shower. The first of these hyperbolic similes dates from the mid-1800s, the second from the early 1900s.

Ammer's information seems inaccurate, to judge from instances of "hot as hell" that go back at least to the late sixteenth century. From a 1589 English translation by Richard Eden of Martín Cortés, The Arte of Nauigation Conteyning a Compendious Description of the Sphere, with the Making of Certayne Instruments and Rules for Nauigations, and Exemplifyed by Many Demonstrations (1589):

The South wynde in Europe, causeth rayne in most places, and therefore the Poets named it the wynde of waters, and this wind in Palestina or Iurie is drie. The cause of this diuersitie, is, that when the wynde bloweth in Palestina, it passeth by hot and drye regions, as by the desarts of Affrike, and passeth not by any sea at al. But when it bloweth in these partes of Europe, it must of necessitie passe by, and ouer the waters of the sea Mediterraneum, or the Leuant sea, where it gathereth moysture and causeth rayne. The Leuant or East wynde, in Malaga, and Gibralter, is moyste, and in Sheres De la Frontera, is hot as Hell.

From Thomas Bilson (Bishop of Winchester), The Suruey of Christs Sufferings for Mans Redemption and of his Descent to Hades or Hel for Our Deliuerance (1604), where the expression appears four times (three included in the following extract), always as part of the longer phrase "as hot as hell fire":

Who can say, but that this was as hot and scorching as hell fire it selfe? We see then your forwardnesse to haue it so; but withall your foolishnesse, that daunting all others as vnpriuie to Gods secrets, and Christes sufferings, you only take vpon you to tell vs out of your casting boxe, how great and how hot the paine was, which Christ suffered in soule; euen as great and as hot as hell fire it selfe. What dreames be these to mocke men withall, and to fraight the Christian faith with? As if you had of late receiued some Reuelation from heauen, that Christes paine was full as hot as hell fire. I will not diminish the paines which the Sonne of God suffered for our sakes; but am well content to aggrauate them to the highest, so farre as the Scriptures giue me any light or leading; but you that extenuate his paines described in the Scriptures, and deuise other paines for him as hot as hell fire, no where testified by the Holy Ghost, what defence can you bring for your doings?

And from R. Junius, The Drunkard's Character, Or, a True Drunkard with Such Sinnes as Raigne in Him (1638):

You know when the Iron is hot, the Smith can fashion it to his pleasure : and wine tempers the heart like wax, for the divels impression : when a man is drunk, Sathan may stamp in his heart the foulest sinne, but lust will admit no denyall. Yea, drunkennesse inflames the soule, and fills that with lusts as hot as hell; high diet is adulteries nurse. They rose up in the morning like fed Horses, saith the Prophet, (and what followes, every man neighed after his heighbours wife) Ier.5.8. ...

And finally, from Abraham Cowley, The Guardian, a Comedie (1641):

Blade. This worm-eaten old fellow has spoil'd our sport. And what says my hour-glass now? Time was i'faith.

Cutter. How do you feel your self?

Blade. As hot as Hell. Come wee'l take our last farewel within; and farwel here all drinking. God send me a good journey, I say.

The phrase "hot as blazes," meanwhile, begins turning up Google Books matches in the 1820s, although one undated instance might be a bit older. from Blaize Fitztravesty, "Nuptials out of Jeopardy," in Blackwood's Magazine (January 1823):

Peter. Children, draw off now to the manufacory, / Where you shall have the dinner I promised. / My friends, the wedding feast will be dish'd up / At one o'clock precisely ; and our cook / Will be as hot as blazes, if you're not / In very good time.--And now, my wedded wife, / I'll lead you over the domestic threshold, / Where you must rule as Mistress.

From "A Letter from the Fox-hunter Rough and Ready," dated August 31, 1826, in The Sporting Magazine (October 1826):

I rode one Beningbrough mare upon an average five times a fortnight, and she was never sick nor sorry ; she was as hot as blazes, and spilt and kilt me often enough, and nearly did for a few hounds, and a few horses too.

And from Jesse Hammond, "The Rival Clubs; or, Life Along Shore" in The Universal Songster: Or, Museum of Mirth: Forming the Most Complete, Extensive, and Valuable Collection of Ancient and Modern Songs in the English Language (1826), this undated instance:

SPOKEN.] Walk in, my worthies, here we are, as hot as blazes, and all below like the fallen angels. Well then suppose you squeezes a bit further, and let me get into the poet's Corner. I'd thank you not to stir the fire, for the tallow chamber waxes warm, and seems to be in a melting mood. Ha, ha, ha!

Hammond was active in the 1820s, so the song cited here may have been written in or not long before 1826.