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:
It is important to consult your doctor before taking any supplements.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 26, 2026
She brought her findings to Maisa’s doctor and therapist in Boise.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026
She went on to raise a family and have a successful career as a specialist ear, nose and throat doctor.
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026
Mr. Rogers, the Republican candidate for Senate, is squaring off against Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, a 41-year-old Rhodes scholar and doctor who never practiced medicine.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 24, 2026
Mama said that the doctor had taken the cast off Daisy’s leg.
From "Summer of the Monkeys" by Wilson Rawls
The apology comes after the college set up a working group of experts, doctors and abuse survivors, including Caroline, to review NHS care.
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026
While the team’s doctors cleared him to play, Hardy went to an outside orthopedic surgeon who advised him not to play on the injury and to get immediate surgery.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026
Many people do not have primary care physicians, and often those who do cannot easily call up their doctors to ask questions.
From Slate ● Aug. 26, 2026
"People say how you stay looking so young? I say, well, good lighting, good doctors, and good makeup."
From Barron's ● Aug. 25, 2026
One day the doctors told Jimmie and me that he was dying.
From "Reaching for the Moon" by Katherine Johnson
By that time, the White House TikTok account already had posted a video, doctored using artificial intelligence.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 17, 2026
The former prince has previously questioned whether the picture had been doctored and claimed he had never met Giuffre.
From BBC ● Feb. 12, 2026
Soon, real and doctored versions of those photos were filtering their way across the internet.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 7, 2026
Some posts commended his steady demeanor and no-nonsense delivery, others complimented his appearance and a few attached doctored images and videos of him.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 13, 2026
He doctored the books whenever we crossed a checkpoint, to make it seem he was getting more sleep than he was.
From "Educated" by Tara Westover
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
The lawsuit - filed in Florida - accuses the BBC of "intentionally, maliciously, and deceptively doctoring" his speech.
From BBC ● Mar. 16, 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
It needed doctoring, and I had not one clue about what to do.
From "Hattie Big Sky" by Kirby Larson
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.
