doctor

Less common meanings

4. 4
   verbcolloquialtransitive

   To improve something by repairing it, patching it, or adding to it so it works, looks, or tastes better, with no wish to mislead.

   Most home bakers doctor a boxed cake mix with an extra egg and real butter.

   My uncle doctored up the old pickup with spare parts and kept it on the road for another year.

   UsageOften doctor something up, or doctor food with extras. Where cheating is possible, say improved or patched up instead.

   Similarfix, patch, repair, improve

   Note

   The benign twin of the forger's meaning: both describe changing something after it was made, and only the motive differs. A doctored document has been falsified; a doctored cake mix has simply been improved.

5. 5
   treat patientsverbtransitive

   To give medical treatment to someone; to work as a doctor.

   She doctored the wounded soldiers through the long winter.

   Volunteers helped doctor the injured after the earthquake.

   Similartreat, nurse, tend

   Note

   The doctoring can come from family as easily as from a physician.

6. 6
   animal vetnouncountable

   A veterinarian, that is, someone who provides medical care to animals rather than to people.

   The farm called the doctor when the cow stopped eating.

   Animal doctors at the zoo monitor the elephants closely.

   Similarvet, veterinarian

7. 7
   fix (animals)verbtransitive

   To alter a living creature, for example by neutering it or changing its genes, to control its growth, breeding, or behavior.

   Years ago we paid the vet to doctor our tomcat, and he hasn't wandered off at night since.

   Back on the ranch, every tomcat got doctored by his first birthday, or else the barn would be overrun with kittens.

   UsageA polite way to avoid saying neutered: get a cat or dog doctored.

   Similarneuter, castrate, fix

   Note

   The verb stretches past animals to plants: a gardener can doctor a hedge or a fruit tree to keep it small.

8. 8
   nouncountable

   A nickname for someone with special knowledge or skill in manipulating or arranging transactions.

   Around the trading floor he was simply the doctor, the man called in whenever a merger stalled.

   Colleagues called her the doctor because she could rescue a contract that both sides had abandoned.

   Similarfixer

9. 9
   nounobsolete

   A teacher or learned person; someone skilled in a profession or branch of knowledge.

   one of the doctors of Italy, Nicholas Macciavel

   1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Goodness and Goodness of Nature”

   So from that tyme forwarde I began to ſmell the word of god, and forſoke the ſchole doctors and ſuch foolries.

   1552, Hugh Latimer, Augustine Bernher

   Note

   The oldest meaning, and the one the word was born with. Latin doctor meant "teacher," from doceō, "to teach," and Middle English used it for an expert or authority. Hugh Latimer, preaching in 1552, turns away from "the schole doctors," the teachers of the schools. Francis Bacon's essay Of Goodness and Goodness of Nature calls Machiavelli "one of the doctors of Italy." Source

   Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 6 facts

   • Teacher or learned person is the word's original meaning. en.wikipedia.org
   • Latin doctor meant teacher and derives from doceō, meaning to teach. en.wiktionary.org
   • Middle English used doctor for an expert or authority. en.wiktionary.org
   • Hugh Latimer delivered the relevant sermon in 1552. anglicanhistory.org
   • Latimer describes forsaking the school doctors; the quoted original spelling is accurate. en.wiktionary.org
   • Francis Bacon's essay Of Goodness and Goodness of Nature calls Machiavelli one of the doctors of Italy. en.wikisource.org
10. 10
    ship's cooknounobsolete

    The cook aboard a ship; a sailors' nickname for the member of the crew who prepares the food.

    His galley is small, and, microscopic as it is, it is shared by his brother in misery, the ship's cook, he whom the crew familiarly know as the “Doctor.”

    1881, The United Service

    Note

    Sailors' slang, now obsolete, for the man in the galley. William Robert Wilde's Narrative of a Voyage to Madeira has to explain it in brackets, "the doctor, (ship's cook,)", for readers ashore. The United Service in 1881 says the crew "familiarly know" the cook as the "Doctor," capitalized like a name. Source

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

    • Doctor was sailors' slang for a ship's cook. en.wiktionary.org
    • William Robert Wilde wrote Narrative of a Voyage to Madeira. archive.org
    • Wilde's narrative explains doctor with the parenthetical gloss quoted in the item. en.wiktionary.org
    • The United Service, volume 5 (1881), page 212, says the crew familiarly know the cook as the Doctor, with a capital D. en.wiktionary.org
11. 11
    verbobsoleteintransitive

    To take medicine; to treat oneself with medicine.

    Note

    Here the patient is the one acting: to doctor was to take medicine oneself, with no object needed. Source

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

    • Doctor had an intransitive sense meaning to take medicine: the subject was the person taking it, and no object was required. en.wiktionary.org
12. 12
    verb

    To confer a doctorate upon someone; to make someone an academic doctor.
13. 13
    noundated

    A mechanical device of any kind, contrived to solve a problem or meet a sudden need.

    The use of a disk doctor may be the only way of recovering valuable data following a disk crash.

    2010, Ramesh Bangia, Dictionary of Information Technology
14. 14
    noun

    A type of sea fish, the friar skate.