doctored

1. 1
   adjective

   Altered or falsified so as to mislead, especially when applied to evidence, records, or images.

   The doctored evidence collapsed under cross-examination once the original surfaced.

   A doctored video circulated online, splicing the speech to reverse its meaning.

   Similarfalsified, altered, forged

   Oppositegenuine, authentic, unaltered, original

   Note

   A word of accusation more than description. In Brian Stelter's 2025 report, a lawsuit claims an interview was deceptively "doctored" and CBS answers that it was not doctored. The adjective works before a noun, as in doctored statistics, and after be. Behind it lies the figurative verb, to alter or obscure with intent to deceive. Calling something doctored therefore charges bad faith, not just a change.

2. 2
   verb

   Past participle of doctor.

   The accountant had doctored the ledgers for years before anyone noticed.

   The footage was doctored so cleverly that the experts disagreed about it.

   Note

   The participle carries every meaning of the verb doctor, from treating a patient to conferring a doctorate to tampering with a document. In passives about records or footage, it is the tampering meaning that comes through, and that use hardened into the "falsified" adjective. The simple past has the same spelling, so only the construction tells they doctored the ledgers from the ledgers had been doctored.

3. 3
   adjective

   Mended or put back into working order after damage or a breakdown.

   The old shed roof, doctored with a few fresh shingles and a sheet of tin over the worst hole, finally stopped leaking.

   The doctored engine, patched with spare parts from a junkyard, ran smoothly all the way to the coast.

   Similarpatched, fixed

   Oppositebroken, damaged

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