doctor
Americannoun
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doctors
plural
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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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doctors,
present (3rd person singular)
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doctored,
past participle, past
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doctoring
present participle
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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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doctors,
present (3rd person singular)
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doctored,
past participle, past
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doctoring
present participle
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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:
A radiographer failed to flag her abnormal chest X-ray to anyone on the ward, and the doctor did not review it immediately because she was in A&E reviewing another child.
From BBC ● Oct. 31, 2026
A Glendale doctor who fraudulently billed more than $45 million in Botox injections to Medicare and used the proceeds to fund a lavish lifestyle was sentenced Thursday to 15 years in federal prison.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 31, 2026
"We're all kind of afraid," said doctor Jennifer Bacani McKenney, whose practice is attached to the Fredonia hospital.
From Barron's ● Oct. 30, 2026
Even for the healthy 70-something, skiing requires honest self-reflection and, ideally, a conversation with your doctor.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 28, 2026
Sitting on Belle, the doctor clasps my hand around Midnight’s rein.
From "Will’s Race for Home" by Jewell Parker Rhodes
Radiologists are doctors who specialise in using images to diagnose and manage medical conditions and diseases.
From BBC ● Nov. 1, 2026
After dozens of tests and MRIs, doctors linked Dave’s symptoms to a recalled presurgery drug, but the cause was never proven.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 1, 2026
The 53-year-old senator began experiencing numbness in his arm and was taken to a local hospital, where doctors determined he had suffered a stroke.
From Salon ● Nov. 1, 2026
For now, while exploration is ongoing into whether approving the vaccine to younger populations is warranted, doctors recommend paying close attention to any itchy patches, even areas of skin with no visible rash.
From Slate ● Nov. 1, 2026
We had no goose doctors in the country, and all Mama could do was cut the line and let Gandy fare for himself.
From "Summer of the Monkeys" by Wilson Rawls
His wife confronted him weeks later after noticing pages missing from a credit report he had doctored to hide the loans.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026
By that time, the White House TikTok account already had posted a video, doctored using artificial intelligence.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 17, 2026
He has previously questioned whether a picture of him with his arm around Guiffre had been doctored and claimed he had never met her.
From BBC ● Feb. 9, 2026
Soon, real and doctored versions of those photos were filtering their way across the internet.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 7, 2026
On a previous trip to Cuba, Farmer had also doctored Eduardo.
From "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder and Michael French
Javice was arrested in 2023 for doctoring customer lists while selling her company, Frank, to JPMorgan for $175 million.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 14, 2026
Fifa, the world football governing body, has accused FAM of doctoring citizenship documents so seven foreign-born athletes could play for Malaysia.
From BBC ● Jan. 28, 2026
The clinic note is a vital part of doctoring.
From Slate ● Aug. 19, 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
The two of them provided the mules with affection and doctoring and kind company.
From "Dead End in Norvelt" by Jack Gantos
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
