Massage is one of those terms which are easily understood than expressed. People find it difficult to define massage, although they are confident of its meaning. Many definitions of massage have been offered time to time, some are:-

• Massage is the scientific mode of curving certain form of disease by systematic manipulations . - Murrel• Massage refer to all mechanical procedure that can cure illness - hoffa • Massage is the scientific manipulation of the soft tissue of the body with the palmer aspect of hand(s) and of fingers.• Massage can be defined as the hand motion practiced on the surface of the body with a therapeutic ( beneficial )goal.• Massage is the application of force to the soft tissue without producing any movement or change in the position of joints.•Massage is the mechanical stimulation of soft tissues of the body by rhythmically applied pressure &stretching.•Massage is a healing art.

Most of those definitions are inadequate because neither do they include the complete dimension of massage nor do they offer any criteria to decide whether a given technique can be included in massage or not.