0 present 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: --
They have also done so by massaging the trade figures, culling the hospital waiting lists and, most recently, trying to fiddle the retail prices index.
In this country, benefit culture came precisely and specifically from that massaging of unemployment figures.
We do not want any massaging of the figures.
It is massaging the official statistics to achieve the objectives of the massage.
They might not be sinister, but they need some capital reconstruction and massaging of the accounts to be appreciated and accepted.
No amount of massaging of the figures and euphoric speeches will alter the underlying decline in employment in my constituency.
However, those sums are available for massaging the accounts of proposed privatised industries in advance of flotation.
But even that hefty figure is reached after a degree of massaging that would make a physiotherapist green with envy.
