Link Centre Dictionary

caress

ca·ress

UK/kəˈɹɛs/ US/kɜrˈɛs/ fairly common
verb (1) noun (1)

verb

1.

touch or stroke lightly in a loving or endearing manner

  • “He caressed her face”
  • “They caressed in the back seat of the taxi”

noun

1.

a gentle affectionate stroking (or something resembling it)

  • “he showered her with caresses”
  • “soft music was a fond caress”
  • “the caresses of the breeze played over his face”

Origin

From French caresse, from Italian carezza (“dear”), from Latin cārus (“dear”), from Proto-Indo-European *keh₂-, akin to Sanskrit काम (kāma, “love”). Doublet of karezza.

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.