massage

[muh-sahzh, -sahj or, esp. British, mas-ahzh] /məˈsɑʒ, -ˈsɑdʒ or, esp. British, ˈmæs ɑʒ/
noun
1.
the act or art of treating the body by rubbing, kneading, patting, or the like, to stimulate circulation, increase suppleness, relieve tension, etc.
2.
Slang. attentive or indulgent treatment; pampering:
ego massage.
verb (used with object), massaged, massaging.
3.
to treat by massage.
4.
Slang. to treat with special care and attention; coddle or pamper:
The store massages its regular customers with gifts and private sales.
5.
Informal.
  1. to manipulate, maneuver, or handle skillfully:
    to massage a bill through the Senate.
  2. 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
1875-80; < French, equivalent to mass(er) to massage (< Arabic massa to handle) + -age -age
Related forms
massager, massagist, noun
Can be confused
massage, message.
British Dictionary definitions for massage

massage

/ˈmæsɑːʒ; -sɑːdʒ/
noun
1.
the act of kneading, rubbing, etc, parts of the body to promote circulation, suppleness, or relaxation
verb (transitive)
2.
to give a massage to
3.
to treat (stiffness, aches, etc) by a massage
4.
to manipulate (statistics, data, etc) so that they appear to support a particular interpretation or to be better than they are; doctor
5.
massage someone's ego, to boost someone's sense of self-esteem by flattery
Derived Forms
massager, massagist, noun
Word Origin
C19: from French, from masser to rub; see mass
Word Origin and History for massage
n.

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.

massage in Medicine

massage mas·sage (mə-säzh' -säj')
n.
The rubbing or kneading of parts of the body for therapeutic purposes. v. mas·saged, mas·sag·ing, mas·sag·es

  1. To give a massage to.

  2. To treat by means of a massage.

Slang definitions & phrases for massage

massage

verb
  1. To beat; drub; ROUGH someone UP: caught and massaged with rubber hoses (1924+)
  2. To handle, process, or manipulate data, esp computer data: The results all depend on how you massage it (1966+)

massage in Technology

Vague term used to describe "smooth" transformations of a data set into a different form, especially transformations that do not lose information. Connotes less pain than munch or crunch. "He wrote a program that massages X bitmap files into GIF format." Compare slurp.
[Jargon File]