doctor

[dok-ter]

noun

1. a person licensed to practice medicine, as a physician, surgeon, dentist, or veterinarian.

2. a person who has been awarded a doctor's degree.

   He is a Doctor of Philosophy.

3. Doctor of the Church.

4. Older Slang.,  a cook, as at a camp or on a ship.

5. Machinery.,  any of various minor mechanical devices, especially one designed to remedy an undesirable characteristic of an automatic process.

6. Angling.,  any of several artificial flies, especially the silver doctor.

7. an eminent scholar and teacher.

verb (used with object)

1. to give medical treatment to; act as a physician to.

   He feels he can doctor himself for just a common cold.

2. to treat (an ailment); apply remedies to.

   He doctored his cold at home.

3. to restore to original or working condition; repair; mend.

   She was able to doctor the chipped vase with a little plastic cement.

4. to tamper with; falsify.

   He doctored the birthdate on his passport.

5. to add a foreign substance to; adulterate.

   Someone had doctored the drink.

6. 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.

7. to award a doctorate to.

   He did his undergraduate work in the U.S. and was doctored at Oxford.

verb (used without object)

1. to practice medicine.

2. Older Use.,  to take medicine; receive medical treatment.

3. Metallurgy.,  (of an article being electroplated) to receive plating unevenly.

doctor

/ ˈdɒktə, dɒkˈtɔːrɪəl /

noun

1. a person licensed to practise medicine

2. a person who has been awarded a higher academic degree in any field of knowledge

3. a person licensed to practise dentistry or veterinary medicine

4. 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

5. angling any of various gaudy artificial flies

6. informal,  a person who mends or repairs things

7. slang,  a cook on a ship or at a camp

8. archaic,  a man, esp a teacher, of learning

9. 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

10. (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

11. a cool sea breeze blowing in some countries

    the Cape doctor

12. slang,  to make a great effort or move very fast, esp in a horse race

13. something needed or desired

verb

1. (tr)

   1. to give medical treatment to

   2. to prescribe for (a disease or disorder)

2. informal,  (intr) to practise medicine

   he doctored in Easter Island for six years

3. (tr) to repair or mend, esp in a makeshift manner

4. (tr) to make different in order to deceive, tamper with, falsify, or adulterate

5. (tr) to adapt for a desired end, effect, etc

6. (tr) to castrate (a cat, dog, etc)

Other Word Forms

• doctoral adjective
• doctorial adjective
• doctorally adverb
• doctorially adverb
• doctorless adjective
• doctorship noun
• subdoctor noun
• superdoctor noun
• underdoctor noun
• undoctored adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of doctor¹

First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English docto(u)r, from Anglo-French, from Latin, from doc(ēre) “to teach” + -tor -tor

Word History and Origins

Origin of doctor¹

C14: from Latin: teacher, from docēre to teach

Idioms and Phrases

see just what the doctor ordered.

Example Sentences

The family got there as quickly as they could, but on arrival doctors explained just how serious the situation was.

Read more on BBC

The writing is muddled at times by a certain narrative slippage wherein one cannot tell whether the biting observations about clueless classmates and pretentious doctors come from Alice or Mr. deBoer.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

If the government mandates lower prices, drug companies are squeezed and respond by developing fewer drugs—reducing innovation and the therapeutic choices desired by patients and doctors.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Israel says Hamas fighters have used hospitals as bases of operations, effectively seeking to use doctors and injured and sick civilians as shields against Israeli strikes.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

"He loved birds, and he told me he wanted to be a heart doctor, he used to say this all the time," she said tearfully, adding that he always got 'excellent' in his school grades.

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• expert 
• physician 
• professor 
• scientist 
• specialist 
• surgeon