doctor
/ˈdɒktə
/noun
1A person who is qualified to treat people who are ill: [as title]: Doctor Thornhill...
- It had resulted in asthma being the most common chronic illness treated by doctors in general practice.
- These patients are treated by primary care doctors in outpatient clinics.
- Most patients are seen and treated by primary care doctors, who may be unfamiliar with the condition.
Synonyms
physician, medical practitioner, medical man, medical woman, clinician, doctor of medicine, MD;
Navy surgeon
informal doc, medic, medico, quack
archaic leech, sawbones
1.1North American A qualified dentist or veterinary surgeon.A veterinary doctor by profession, he began his love affair with Nila about 25 years ago....
- Then she hired an autorickshaw and took me to a veterinary doctor.
- A veterinary doctor attended on her, but the symptoms continued.
1.2 [with modifier] informal A person employed to make improvements or give advice: the script doctor rewrote the original...
- Nowadays it often seems as if studios employ script doctors not to remove four-letter words but to add them.
- This is the story of New York city date doctor employed by socially-inept men to help orchestrate their first three dates with the women of their dreams.
- I turned to the hair doctor for advice.
2 (Doctor) A person who holds the highest university degree: he was made a Doctor of Divinity...
- This week Glasgow Caledonian University is making him an Honorary Doctor of Letters.
- Last Wednesday, he was made a Doctor of Music at the University of St Andrews.
- He studied in St. Nathy's College, Ballaghaderreen and later graduated as a Doctor of Science.
2.1 short for Doctor of the Church.It was not until after the Council of Trent that popes began to add new doctors of the church at regular intervals....
- Bede was recognized as a doctor of the church by Pope Leo XIII in 1899.
- Local saints are frequently included, as well as figures of general importance, apostles, and doctors of the Church.
2.2 archaic A teacher or learned person: the wisest doctor is gravelled by the inquisitiveness of a child...
- The learned doctors of the Great Vehicle teach us that the essential characteristic of the universe is its emptiness.
3An artificial fishing fly.
4 [with modifier] A cool onshore breeze that blows regularly in a particular warm location: the Perth doctor blows towards evening off the Indian Ocean...See also Cape doctor, Albany doctor.
- Even on the hottest days, the Fremantle Doctor – the famous seabreeze off the Indian Ocean – comes to the rescue by early afternoon.
- My mom's family planned their yearly escape from the heat—to the beach, where they would at least have the Fremantle doctor in the evening.
- We watched what may have been the most exciting America's Cup races of our time thanks to the Fremantle Doctor, the strong wind that blows regularly every afternoon when cool air is pulled in off the ocean.
verb [with object]
1Change the content or appearance of (a document or picture) in order to deceive; falsify: the reports could have been doctored...
- The company claims he doctored documents to cover his tracks.
- He suggested a senior lecturer had doctored documents for the purpose of an employment tribunal.
- To add some visual appeal and an element of authenticity, there were photos doctored appropriately using digital technology.
Synonyms
falsify, tamper with, tinker with, interfere with, manipulate, massage, rig, alter, change;
forge, fake, trump up;
fudge, pervert, distort
informal cook, juggle
British informal fiddle (with)
1.1Alter the content of (food or drink) by adding strong or harmful ingredients: he denied doctoring Stephen’s drinks...
- I think that third-world countries can benefit from GM foods, because these doctored foods can provide the nutrients that these deprived people need to stay alive.
- We get hold of some, find a sheep and doctor its food.
- Places where men can band together and consume meat are now either heavily policed, or the meat is doctored to lessen its impact.
Synonyms
adulterate, contaminate, taint, tamper with, lace, mix, dilute, water down, thin out, weaken
informal spike, dope, cut, slip a Mickey Finn into
rare vitiate
1.2 Cricket & Baseball Tamper with (a ball) so as to affect its flight when bowled or pitched: fast bowlers were doctoring the ball...
- He doctored a ball over the course of two weeks by pounding it with a bat, soaking it in soapy water, and finally coating it with white shoe polish to make it look like new.
- Check out what the pitcher said after being accused of doctoring the ball.
- Whether it's pitchers doctoring baseballs, batters corking bats or electricians creating an eye in the sky cheating system, historically, individuals and teams sometimes do whatever is necessary to gain an edge.
2 (usually as noun doctoring) informal Treat (someone) medically: he contemplated giving up doctoring...
- It's much better to let that person be doctored.
- Carter, who regularly doctored his people, had enormous respect for Nassaw's ability as a physician, for, in truth, Nassaw was one of the finest surgeons in colonial Virginia.
- His great love, after doctoring, was sailing, mainly off the west coast of Scotland, in almost any weather, in a boat built to his design by his elder brother.
Synonyms
treat, medicate, dose, soothe, cure, heal;
tend, attend to, minister to, administer to, care for, take care of, nurse
2.1Remove the sexual organs of (an animal) so that it cannot reproduce: the dog was doctored...
- Wait until your pet is doctored and feeling more like their cheery, upbeat self.
- Over the past year, about twice the usual number of cats and dogs were doctored.
2.2Repair (a machine): ex-fleet cars which have been doctored
Phrases
be (just) what the doctor ordered
go for the doctor
Derivatives
doctorly
- Walk away under the guise of having urgent doctorly business to take care of instead of just admitting to total incompetence.
- I took my hand and touched his chest, hoping he would think it was some type of doctorly thing instead of what it really was… checking out his body.
- Just as the doctor extended his hands, protected by rubber gloves, to hold me up and do his doctorly deeds, my mother took her last breath, and slipped away from this world into the next.
doctorial
doctorship
Origin
Middle English (in the senses 'learned person' and 'Doctor of the Church'): via Old French from Latin doctor 'teacher' (from docere 'teach').
physician from Middle English:
The Old English word for a medical doctor was leech (despite popular belief, nothing to do with the worm, but a word meaning ‘a healer’). Physician arrived in the early Middle Ages, and goes back to Greek phusis ‘nature’, the root also of physical (Late Middle English), physics (Late Middle English), and numerous other English words. A doctor (Middle English) was originally not a physician but any learned person able to give an authoritative opinion, especially one of the early Christian theologians. The word started referring specifically to a medical expert at the start of the 15th century. It comes from doctor, the Latin for ‘teacher’, also found in words such as docile (Late Middle English) ‘willing to learn’; document (Late Middle English) ‘official paper, proof’; and doctrine (Late Middle English), originally the action of teaching.