Word.ws English Dictionary

caressing

/kəˈɹɛsɪŋ/

caressing is the present participle and gerund of caress.

Meaning of caress

Verb

caress (third-person singular simple present caresses, present participle caressing, simple past and past participle caressed)

  1. (transitive) To touch or kiss lovingly; to fondle.
    • She loves being caressed by her boyfriend.
  2. (transitive) To affect as if with a caress.
    • The love and anguish in his voice caressed my mind and soul.2012, Mel Berry, Graceful Intentions, page 1

See all 4 meanings of caress

Noun

caressing (plural caressings)

  1. A caress.

Forms of caressing

pluralcaressings

Words formed from caressing

Phrases with caressing

Questions about caressing

What does caressing mean?
Caressing means a caress.
What is caressing the present participle and gerund of?
Caressing is the present participle and gerund of caress.
What part of speech is caressing?
Caressing is a noun.
How do you pronounce caressing?
Caressing is pronounced /kəˈɹɛsɪŋ/.
What is the plural of caressing?
The plural of caressing is caressings.

Words near caressing in the dictionary

  1. caressed
  2. caresser
  3. caressers
  4. caresses
  5. caresseth
  6. caressing
  7. caressing name
  8. caressing names
  9. caressingly
  10. caressings
  11. caressive

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: caressing (page history and authors); caress (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-caressing.wav.

Cite this entry: “caressing.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/caressing. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.