caress hair

Meanings

1. 1phrasefixed phraseliterary

   to move your hand gently and lovingly over someone's hair.

   Grammar: Caress is transitive here: caress someone's hair. You can also say caress someone's head or face.

   Patterns

   • caress someone's hair
   • gently caress someone's hair
   • caress someone's hair with your hand

   She caressed his hair as he fell asleep on the sofa.

   In the poem, the mother caresses her child's hair while singing softly.

   He gently caressed her hair and told her everything would be all right.

2. 2phrasefixed phraseliterary

   to touch hair in a slow, tender way, often as a sign of affection.

   Grammar: The object is usually a person's hair, not the person directly: caress her hair, not caress her.

   Patterns

   • caress hair softly
   • caress someone's hair tenderly

   The nurse caressed the old woman's hair to comfort her.

   He watched her caress her own hair absentmindedly as she read.

Common combinations

gently caress someone's hair

She gently caressed the baby's hair until he stopped crying.

caress someone's hair tenderly

He caressed her hair tenderly and whispered that he loved her.

caress someone's hair with your fingers

The stylist caressed her hair with her fingers to check its texture.

Synonyms and how they differ

stroke

Stroke is the everyday word for moving your hand gently over hair or fur; caress sounds more romantic and literary.

pet

Pet is used mostly for animals and is more casual; it would sound odd for a person's hair.

Opposites

Word family

caress verb

To touch someone or something gently and lovingly.

caress noun

A gentle, loving touch, as in 'a soft caress on the cheek'.

caressing adjective

Describing a gentle, loving touch, as in 'a caressing hand'.

Commonly confused: caress hair or stroke? caress hair or carve?

Practice

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Write a sentence using “caress hair”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

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