the act or art of treating the body by rubbing, kneading, patting, or the like, to stimulate circulation, increase suppleness, relieve tension, etc.
Slang. attentive or indulgent treatment; pampering: ego massage.
verb (used with object),mas·saged,mas·sag·ing.
to treat by massage.
Slang. to treat with special care and attention; coddle or pamper: The store massages its regular customers with gifts and private sales.
Informal.
to manipulate, maneuver, or handle skillfully: to massage a bill through the Senate.
to manipulate, organize, or rearrange (data, figures, or the like) to produce a specific result, especially a favorable one: The auditors discovered that the company had massaged the books.
Origin of massage
1875–80; < French, equivalent to mass(er) to massage (< Arabicmassa to handle) + -age-age
Related formsmas·sag·er, mas·sag·ist, nounCan be confusedmassagemessage
1874, from French massage "friction of kneading," from masser "to massage," possibly from Arabic massa "to touch, feel, handle;" if so, probably picked up in Egypt during the Napoleonic campaign there. Other possibility is that French got it in colonial India from Portuguese amassar "knead," a verb from Latin massa "mass, dough" (see mass (n.1)). Massage parlor first attested 1894, from the start a euphemism for "house of prostitution."
v.
1874, from massage (n.). Related: Massaged; massaging.
