To knead is to squeeze or press with the hands. You can knead dough. In massage, thumb-kneading is pressing with your thumbs and full-hand kneading is pressing with your hand. Cat's knead (alternating paws) the blankets, pillows, and their owners sometimes. It looks and feels like the cat is giving a massage. Oh, this is the food and drink category. Lol
To knead is a verb. It is defined as the act of working dough with one's own hands, which involves folding over, pressing down and turning the dough over repeatedly. The dough is kneaded until it becomes a smooth and pliable mass. Usually it is kneaded with the hands, but in the modern times, the kneading is also done using a mixer, which also allows the person to mix the other ingredients and develop gluten.
To knead basically means to make dough, but the word is also used in the context of making any substance which has the same texture as dough. To knead means to make dough, or the substance that looks like dough, smooth and elastic. This is done by folding, stretching and pressing it continuously until it reaches the desired texture. When the fondant which is used to make candies is kneaded, the texture of the dough gets satiny instead of elastic.
