family doctor

American  

noun

1. a general practitioner.

---

family doctor British  

noun

1. See general practitioner

---

Etymology

Origin of family doctor

First recorded in 1840–50

Example Sentences

We’re a long way from Norman Rockwell’s Saturday Evening Post portraits of doting parents taking their rosy-cheeked children to the avuncular family doctor for back-to-school checkups.

From The Wall Street Journal

Just before Christmas last year, 77-year-old Nancy Hammer visited her family doctor seeking help for her worsening back pain.

From The Wall Street Journal

Professor Victoria Tzortziou Brown, chair of the Royal College of GPs, said there's a "difficult balance" for family doctors to strike when patients expect a diagnosis for mental health problems, but don't meet the criteria.

From BBC

But when the headaches didn’t stop, we went to see our family doctor, Dr. Scott.

From Literature

In a concierge practice, physicians can act more like the family doctors of old—finding specialists, following up with other physicians, even seeing a patient in the hospital and advocating for them.

From Barron's