doctor
Americannoun
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a person licensed to practice medicine, as a physician, surgeon, dentist, or veterinarian.
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a person who has been awarded a doctor's degree.
He is a Doctor of Philosophy.
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Older Slang. a cook, as at a camp or on a ship.
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Machinery. any of various minor mechanical devices, especially one designed to remedy an undesirable characteristic of an automatic process.
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Angling. any of several artificial flies, especially the silver doctor.
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an eminent scholar and teacher.
verb (used with object)
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to give medical treatment to; act as a physician to.
He feels he can doctor himself for just a common cold.
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to treat (an ailment); apply remedies to.
He doctored his cold at home.
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to restore to original or working condition; repair; mend.
She was able to doctor the chipped vase with a little plastic cement.
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to tamper with; falsify.
He doctored the birthdate on his passport.
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to add a foreign substance to; adulterate.
Someone had doctored the drink.
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to revise, alter, or adapt (a photograph, manuscript, etc.) in order to serve a specific purpose or to improve the material.
to doctor a play.
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to award a doctorate to.
He did his undergraduate work in the U.S. and was doctored at Oxford.
verb (used without object)
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to practice medicine.
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Older Use. to take medicine; receive medical treatment.
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Metallurgy. (of an article being electroplated) to receive plating unevenly.
noun
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a person licensed to practise medicine
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a person who has been awarded a higher academic degree in any field of knowledge
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a person licensed to practise dentistry or veterinary medicine
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Also called: Doctor of the Church. (often capital) a title given to any of several of the leading Fathers or theologians in the history of the Christian Church down to the late Middle Ages whose teachings have greatly influenced orthodox Christian thought
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angling any of various gaudy artificial flies
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informal a person who mends or repairs things
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slang a cook on a ship or at a camp
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archaic a man, esp a teacher, of learning
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a device used for local repair of electroplated surfaces, consisting of an anode of the plating material embedded in an absorbent material containing the solution
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(in a paper-making machine) a blade that is set to scrape the roller in order to regulate the thickness of pulp or ink on it
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a cool sea breeze blowing in some countries
the Cape doctor
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slang to make a great effort or move very fast, esp in a horse race
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something needed or desired
verb
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(tr)
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to give medical treatment to
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to prescribe for (a disease or disorder)
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informal (intr) to practise medicine
he doctored in Easter Island for six years
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(tr) to repair or mend, esp in a makeshift manner
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(tr) to make different in order to deceive, tamper with, falsify, or adulterate
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(tr) to adapt for a desired end, effect, etc
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(tr) to castrate (a cat, dog, etc)
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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doctorshipnoun
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subdoctornoun
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superdoctornoun
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underdoctornoun
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doctoraladjective
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doctorialadjective
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doctorlessadjective
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undoctoredadjective
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doctorallyadverb
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doctoriallyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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doctorsimple
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doctorssimple
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have doctoredperfect
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has doctoredperfect
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am doctoringprogressive
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are doctoringprogressive
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is doctoringprogressive
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have been doctoringperfect progressive
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has been doctoringperfect progressive
Past
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doctoredsimple
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had doctoredperfect
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was doctoringprogressive
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were doctoringprogressive
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had been doctoringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of doctor
First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English docto(u)r, from Anglo-French, from Latin, from doc(ēre) “to teach” + -tor -tor
Explanation
You see doctor, and you think of someone doing good — like the medical doctor who saves lives. However, a person who doctors or tampers with a document is adding something wrong or harmful to it, like a lie. Doctor is the Latin word for "teacher," which makes sense since your doctor is often the one teaching you about how to take care of your body. Anyone who has a PhD, be it in English or Egyptology, is also referred to as a doctor because she holds a doctorate degree. But beware, there's also a market out there for doctored, or tampered-with diplomas, where you can buy a fake degree to call yourself a doctor.
Vocabulary lists containing doctor
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
That could mean struggling for the last of a certain flavor of sports drink or withholding access to a doctor.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 3, 2026
The next day, I saw my primary-care doctor.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 3, 2026
Alex, a mortgage broker, decided in his late 20s to have the procedure but his NHS doctor urged him to wait until he turned 30 in case he changed his mind.
From BBC ● Aug. 1, 2026
A week later, on Jan. 29, 2020, he’s brimming with excitement when journalist Lou Dobbs tells him he recommended Mr. Trump consult the doctor on the outbreak.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026
“People don’t realize it,” the doctor said eagerly, “but bulldogs are very affectionate.”
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
With nearly 900 beds and 2,100 doctors, Cedars-Sinai is one of the biggest and most capable hospitals in the U.S.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 3, 2026
However, after discovering he had the more serious condition of complex gastroschisis, doctors referred him to Texas Children's Hospital, in Houston.
From BBC ● Aug. 3, 2026
The findings suggest that DNA changes may help doctors improve diagnoses, monitor patients more accurately, assess how treatments are working, and identify signs of progression years before symptoms become obvious.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 1, 2026
Elizabeth Hagerty told prison doctors she had heat rash covering her body and couldn’t keep fluids down; they sent her back to her cell, and she died two days later, a month short of release.
From Slate ● Jul. 31, 2026
The picture that Hawes makes is probably the very first of doctors being doctors instead of doctors posing for portraits.
From "Phineas Gage" by John Fleischman
Taylor, the nanny in London, said she submitted a doctored photograph of herself that made her look heavier to obtain her prescription.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026
He highlighted that Murrell had doctored invoices for a £124,550 motorhome, a £3,070 robotic lawnmower and a £23.98 egg poacher to register them as legitimate business expenses.
From BBC ● Jun. 4, 2026
According to the lawsuit and subsequent discovery, they doctored a 911 report, stating that the call was unfounded and that no suspect was identified, omitting Williams’ identity.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 14, 2026
"Some of my friends have seen doctored images of themselves which look really convincing," she said.
From BBC ● Mar. 24, 2026
He hardly moved when Doc MacRee doctored it.
From Each Little Bird That Sings by Deborah Wiles
“Back then, they had 30 cowboys who rode every day, seven days a week, doctoring cattle. I’ve got five,” the younger Nieto said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026
The clinic note is a vital part of doctoring.
From Slate ● Aug. 19, 2025
She is alleged to have completed the tests across multiple test centres in the UK, disguising herself and doctoring ID documents to evade detection.
From BBC ● Jan. 27, 2025
When Catherine, Princess of Wales, confessed last week to digitally altering a photo of her with her children, news agencies began examining Catherine’s gallery of royal family photos for other examples of doctoring.
From New York Times ● Mar. 19, 2024
When my mother went doctoring in the villages, the ghosts, the were-people, the apes dropped out of trees.
From "The Woman Warrior" by Maxine Hong Kingston
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
