Definition of carress

(E. Lucas Myers, "The Vindication of Dr. Nestor,"...)

The doctor sat_down rather wearily , caressing the hen and remarking that the city was not the place for a poultry loving man , but no_sooner was the remark out than a knock at this door obliged him to cover the hen with his greatcoat once_more .

(Octavia Waldo, A Cup of the Sun....)

Calloused fingers , caressed only by the smoothness of polished rosaries , had swayed excitedly beneath puckered chins where tiny black hairs sprouted , never to be tweezed away .