doctor shop
Americanverb (used with or without object)
-
to obtain prescriptions for a controlled substance from more than one healthcare practitioner at a time.
Some patients doctor shop in an attempt to score multiple prescriptions for painkillers.
One theory about the celebrity’s fatal overdose is that the medication may have been doctor-shopped.
-
to visit one physician after another in search of a satisfactory one or a particular outcome.
The patient appears to have schizophrenia, and to have doctor shopped for a diagnosis of autism.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of doctor shop
First recorded in 1970–75; back formation from doctor shopping ( def. )
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.
