Knead

//knɛːd// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The act of kneading something.

    "Do not expect the dough to be very manageable even after a good knead."

Verb
  1. 1
    To work and press into a mass, usually with the hands; especially, to work, as by repeated pressure with the knuckles, into a well mixed mass, the materials of bread, cake, etc. transitive

    "Knead the dough by pressing down on it with the heels of both your palms and pushing it forward to stretch it, then pulling it back toward you..."

  2. 2
    simple past and past participle of knead form-of, obsolete, participle, past
  3. 3
    manually manipulate (someone's body), usually for medicinal or relaxation purposes wordnet
  4. 4
    To treat or form as if by kneading; to beat. figuratively, transitive

    "I will knead him: I'll make him supple."

  5. 5
    to mix into a homogeneous mass wordnet
Show 2 more definitions
  1. 6
    Of cats, to make an alternating pressing motion with the two front paws. intransitive

    "Cats knead with their paws when happy, just as they kneaded when feeding from their mothers as kittens."

  2. 7
    To mix thoroughly; form into a homogeneous compound. transitive

Synonyms

All synonyms
amalgamatemassageadmixalloyamalgamatebemingle

Example

More examples

"Knead the dough with both hands until it becomes elastic."

Etymology

From Middle English kneden, from Old English cnedan, from Proto-West Germanic *knedan, from Proto-Germanic *knudaną, from Proto-Indo-European *gnet- (“to press together”).

Related phrases

baking board

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.