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:
The kahu kiwi was one of the farewell gifts presented by Māori leaders in 1900 to Dr George Cleghorn, a medical doctor who had been working in New Zealand.
From BBC ● Oct. 10, 2026
The family received conflicting information from hospital staff, Alejandra said, with one doctor telling them that Magaña’s injuries were consistent with a fall, while another said he had likely been asphyxiated.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 10, 2026
“For people who are there, I’m telling people: ‘Get your flu shot ASAP,’” said Celine Gounder, an infectious-disease doctor and editor at large for public health at KFF Health News.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 9, 2026
Dr. Aimee Eyvazzadeh, a fertility doctor in the Bay Area, estimates that about 30% of her female patients are already taking peptides when they walk into her office.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026
“People don’t realize it,” the doctor said eagerly, “but bulldogs are very affectionate.”
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
Her symptoms had previously been misdiagnosed as asthma and anxiety, which she says was based off the little doctors knew about her mum.
From BBC ● Oct. 10, 2026
Eventually, such knowledge might allow doctors to determine which therapies are most likely to help individual patients, potentially reducing the amount of trial and error involved in treatment.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 9, 2026
Her early symptoms began in 2008 during her Taking Chances World Tour, when she experienced difficulty controlling her voice despite doctors saying her vocal cords appeared normal, she shared with Vogue in 2024.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2026
Airlines started peer support networks for pilots, and the European Union began requiring doctors to report pilots’ severe mental health issues to authorities.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026
For the first time in history, doctors will help more patients with surgery than they harm with postsurgical infections.
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
In May, state media published a photo showing Suu Kyi talking to officials, but Aris says it may have been doctored.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 1, 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
The former prince has previously questioned whether the picture had been doctored and claimed he had never met Giuffre.
From BBC ● Feb. 12, 2026
Others simply doctored the records so that afterward they were in perfect conformity with events.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
“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
In 2022, Fischer ordered the neutral forensic examination of alleged doctoring of the city records.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 12, 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
I wasn’t done doctoring, but Karl was done being a patient.
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.
