doctor
Pluraldoctors
Verbdoctors, doctoring, doctored
Pluraldoctors
Formsdoctors, doctoring, doctored
- 1A person trained and licensed to treat sick or injured people.
Like a mechanic for the human body.
The doctor listened to my heart and checked my breathing.
She wants to be a doctor when she grows up.
UsageYou see a doctor or go to the doctor. Before a name, write Dr.
Similarphysician, medic, clinician, practitioner
Note
- 2A person who has earned the highest university degree, such as a PhD.
After years of research, she became a doctor of philosophy.
He's a doctor, but his PhD is in history, not medicine.
UsageOften doctor of + a subject: a doctor of law.
- 3To secretly change something to trick people, like changing a document or putting a drug in a drink.
Like changing the score in a game after it ends so you look like the winner.
They tried to doctor the contract before the meeting.
She doctored the figures to make the company look profitable.
UsageOften passive: the photo was doctored.
Similarfalsify, manipulate
Note
Less common meanings
- 4To fix or add to something so it works, looks, or tastes better, not to trick anyone.
I like to doctor canned soup with extra garlic and herbs.
Dad doctored up my old bike so I could ride it to school again.
UsageOften doctor something up, or doctor soup with garlic. Doctoring records usually means changing them to trick people.
Similarfix, patch, repair, improve
Note
- 5
- 6A trained expert who treats sick or hurt animals.
We took our dog to the doctor after it hurt its paw.
The doctor gave the horse a shot to ease its pain.
Similarvet, veterinarian
- 7To change an animal, for example by an operation or by changing its genes, to control how it grows, breeds or behaves.
Our neighbor got her dog doctored so it wouldn't have more puppies.
The farmer decided to doctor the young bull so it couldn't father calves.
UsageA polite word for an operation so a pet can't breed: get a cat doctored.
Note
- 8A nickname for a person who is very good at arranging or cleverly handling deals.
Everyone at the bank calls him the doctor because he saves deals that seem dead.
She earned the nickname doctor by fixing business deals that everyone else had given up on.
Similarfixer
- 9A learned teacher or expert in some field of knowledge.
one of the doctors of Italy, Nicholas Macciavel
1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Goodness and Goodness of Nature”Here, doctors means teachers or very learned people.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 BernherHere, doctors means teachers or learned men of the schools.Note
- 10The person who cooks the meals on a ship.
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 ServiceHere, Doctor is a sailors' nickname for the ship's cook.Note
- 11To take medicine in order to get better.
Note
- 12To give someone a doctorate, the highest university degree.
- 13A handy device or gadget used to fix a problem or get out of trouble.
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 TechnologyHere, doctor means a tool made to fix a problem. - 14A kind of flat sea fish known as the friar skate.
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Origin
It comes from Latin doctor, meaning "teacher," from doceō, "to teach." English got the word through Anglo-Norman.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- English doctor derives ultimately from Latin doctor. en.wikipedia.org
- Latin doctor means teacher. en.wiktionary.org
- Latin doctor derives from doceō, meaning to teach. en.wiktionary.org
- English borrowed the word through Anglo-Norman. en.wiktionary.org