0 past simple and past participle of massage --
1 to rub and press someone's body with regular repeated movements, in order to relax them or to reduce stiffness or pain in the joints (= places where two bones are connected) or muscles: --
Would you massage my shoulders?
2 to try to make facts or numbers appear better than they really are in order to deceive someone: --
There are also concerns that the strict financial criteria for membership will be massaged for political reasons, to the disadvantage of the deutschmark.
Of course, if enough changes are made in the unemployment calculations the figures can be massaged downwards.
It seemed to me that her assurance had been misinterpreted or massaged a little.
The massaged figure of ·5 million people unemployed is being increased at the rate of about 20,000 a month.
They wanted unemployment figures to fall, so they changed the system and massaged the figures.
It is no good the figures being good, even if they are twisted or massaged, if the results are not good.
Is not the wide talk of profits for companies now largely fiction and a matter of opinion, with figures being massaged by standard accountancy techniques?
It might have massaged our egos more agreeably, if things had taken that course.
