- present participle of caress.
caressing
Americanadjective
-
gently touching, patting, or stroking a person or thing to show affection.
She stroked my face—temple, cheek, chin, and then up the other side in a caressing, sweeping gesture.
-
touching or seeming to touch a person or thing lightly and in a way that calms or soothes.
Over and over again, I repeated the figures until they became a caressing swash of sound inside my head and hummed me finally to sleep.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of caressing
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The couple posed for photos at the event, drawing attention to their gestating bundle of joy by framing and caressing Palvin’s belly.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 14, 2026
I even ponied up for a pay-per-view a few years back to see Mayweather spend eight rounds gently caressing Jake’s overmatched older brother, Logan.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 26, 2026
Jareth is an illusionist as beguiling and seductive as he is sinister, caressing bubbles and gravity-defiant glass spheres with liquid grace.
From Salon ● Jan. 24, 2026
With the cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, he shows them off beautifully, caressing them in light so that they look lit from within.
From New York Times ● Apr. 25, 2024
“O-phel-i-a. The sound of it is sweet,” Isabel says, caressing with her voice the unfamiliar syllables of my name.
From "Ophelia" by Lisa Klein
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
