gua sha

gua·sha
/ɡwɑ ˈʃɑ/

noun

A treatment used in traditional Chinese medicine involving repeated pressured strokes over the skin with a hard object thereby breaking surface capillaries and leaving light bruising, claimed to release unhealthy bodily matter.

OriginMandarin 刮痧 →
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Meanings

noungua sha (uncountable)
  1. uncountableA treatment used in traditional Chinese medicine involving repeated pressured strokes over the skin with a hard object thereby breaking surface capillaries and leaving light bruising, claimed to release unhealthy bodily matter.
    1 more example

    Looksmaxxing attaches "scores" to aspects of male appearance, focusing particularly on jawline, muscularity and skin. Looksmaxxers aim to increase their scores via "softmaxxing" (such as using a gua sha, burning more calories than consumed, or moisturising) and "hardmaxxing" (such as steroid use, hair transplants, or cosmetic surgery).

    2024 March 26, Riley Farrell, “Inside looksmaxxing, the extreme cosmetic social media trend”, in BBC, archived from the original on 23 Apr 2024

Synonyms & antonyms

Also see
coining

Origin

  1. Mandarin刮痧
  2. Englishgua sha

Borrowed from Mandarin 刮痧 (guāshā, literally “scrape [away] illness”).

More words from Mandarin

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Chinese Mandarin 刮痧
  • 刮痧 (guāshā)treatment
Finnish gua sha -hieronta
  • gua sha -hierontatreatment
Japanese 刮痧
  • 刮痧 (kassa)treatment
Cite this entry
APA

gua sha. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gua%20sha

MLA

“gua sha.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gua%20sha. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “gua sha,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gua%20sha.

Source: gua sha on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.