noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A form of massage involving hitting the body with various parts of one's hand. countable, uncountable
2. 2
   massage in which the body is tapped rhythmically with the fingers or with short rapid movements of the sides of the hand; used to loosen mucus on the chest walls of patients with bronchitis wordnet

Etymology

From French tapoter (“to drum or tap”).

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