masturbation
- 01 B2 Upper Intermediate
the act of touching or rubbing your own sexual organs for pleasure.
sexual stimulation of one's own genitalia or other erotic regions, often resulting in orgasm.
Simple“Many doctors agree that masturbation is a normal and healthy part of human sexuality.”
In context“The survey aimed to collect data on the frequency of masturbation among different age groups to better understand sexual health trends.”
Synonymsself pleasure - 02 C1 Advanced
an activity that feels good to the person doing it but is useless to everyone else.
a vain or self-indulgent activity that provides personal satisfaction without offering any practical or external value.
Simple“The long, boring speech was just a piece of intellectual masturbation.”
In context“Critics dismissed the director's latest three-hour experimental film as nothing more than cinematic masturbation that ignored the audience entirely.”
Synonymsself indulgencenarcissism
Borrowed from French masturbation, New Latin masturbātiō, masturbātiōnem. By surface analysis, masturbat(e) + -ion.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.