Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The rubbing or kneading of parts of the body especially to aid circulation, relax the muscles, or provide sensual stimulation.
  • noun An act or instance of such rubbing or kneading.
  • transitive verb To give a massage to.
  • transitive verb To treat by means of a massage.
  • transitive verb To coddle or cajole.
  • transitive verb To manipulate (data, for example).

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In medicine, to treat by the process called massage.
  • noun In therapeutics, the act or art of applying intermittent pressure and strain to the muscles and other accessible tissues of the patient.
  • noun An obsolete form of message.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A rubbing or kneading of the body, especially when performed as a hygienic or remedial measure.
  • transitive verb (Med.) To treat by means of massage; to rub or knead.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The action of rubbing, kneading or hitting someone's body, to help the person relax, prepare for muscular action (as in contact sports) or to relieve aches.
  • verb transitive To rub and knead (someone's body or a part of a body), to perform a massage on (somebody).
  • verb transitive To manipulate (data, a document etc.) to make it more presentable or more convenient to work with.
  • verb transitive To falsify (data or accounts).

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb manually manipulate (someone's body), usually for medicinal or relaxation purposes
  • noun kneading and rubbing parts of the body to increase circulation and promote relaxation
  • verb give a massage to

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French, from masser, to massage, from Arabic masaḥa, to stroke, anoint; see mšḥ in Semitic roots or massa, to touch; see mšš in Semitic roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French massage, from masser ("to massage") + -age.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word massage.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.