massage

«massage» in Mova's school dictionary: rubbing and pressing someone's body with your hands to… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (a massage, massages); verb (massage, massages, massaged, massaging)

meaning for a pupil

1) A massage is rubbing and pressing someone's body with your hands to relax the muscles or ease pain. tree →

2) To massage someone is to give them a massage. tree →

3) (informal, negative) To massage numbers or facts is to change them a little dishonestly to look better. tree →

sense in the lessons

In everyday life people massage sore shoulders or feet; physiotherapists massage injured muscles in sport. In health lessons a gentle massage can help a tight muscle. In news and maths, «massaged figures» means numbers that were twisted to look good. Phrases: give a massage, foot massage, massage therapist, massage the figures.

examples

• Mum gave me a foot massage after the long walk. tree →
• The physio massaged the footballer's leg. tree →
• A massage can help tight muscles relax. tree →
• She massaged cream into her hands. tree →
• The boss massaged the figures to hide the loss. (informal) tree →
• The massage lasted 30 minutes and cost £25. tree →
• Dad massaged his sore neck. tree →

note

Say it MASS-ahzh (UK) or muh-SAHZH (US). Do not confuse with «message» (a note) — they look alike. Countable noun and regular verb.

In the corpora

• "Massaging the numbers" means changing data so it looks better than it really is.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «massage» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.