A handjob is the manual stimulation of the penis. The manual stimulation of a female's sex organs is usually called fingering, although sometimes "handjob" is used to refer to this act as well.


A handjob may or may not end in ejaculation or orgasm; it may or may not constitute the entire sexual encounter. A handjob may be part of foreplay or part of or a precursor to other sexual activities.

It can provide sexual pleasure to a partner when penetrative intercourse is not possible or desirable. Little physical effort is required for a handjob, and the male is not distracted by the effort of thrusting or the need to stimulate his partner's sexual organs.

A handjob can incorporate a large amount of stimulation and variety and, as with other forms of sexual stimulation, the giving partner can receive significant pleasure and sexual arousal, because they can directly control and observe the sexual excitement and physical reactions of their partner. Handjobs can be enhanced by using oil to lubricate the penis and the hand.

The expression "happy ending" is a colloquial term for the practice of those massage therapists who are also sex workers, offering sexual release to a client. According to a 1975 study by A.J. Velarde, in an unnamed west-coast city in the United States, provision of a "hand job", where the woman gave the client a handjob, was one of the services female masseuses were employed to give.

Subsequent newspaper publicity of this practice caused local councils to impose licensing requirements upon masseuses similar to the ones used on prostitutes. This licensing led to increased expectations in massage parlour clients, who expected that more than a handjob would be available, that is, sexual intercourse.

Because the masseuses themselves considered that they had nothing to lose in acting as prostitutes, and because the local council treated them as prostitutes anyway, masseuses often complied, and thus attracted more prostitution to the city.