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doctor
[ dok-ter ]
noun
- a person licensed to practice medicine, as a physician, surgeon, dentist, or veterinarian.
- a person who has been awarded a doctor's degree:
He is a Doctor of Philosophy.
- Older Slang. a cook, as at a camp or on a ship.
- Machinery. any of various minor mechanical devices, especially one designed to remedy an undesirable characteristic of an automatic process.
- Angling. any of several artificial flies, especially the silver doctor.
- an eminent scholar and teacher.
verb (used with object)
- to give medical treatment to; act as a physician to:
He feels he can doctor himself for just a common cold.
- to treat (an ailment); apply remedies to:
He doctored his cold at home.
- to restore to original or working condition; repair; mend:
She was able to doctor the chipped vase with a little plastic cement.
- to tamper with; falsify:
He doctored the birthdate on his passport.
- to add a foreign substance to; adulterate:
Someone had doctored the drink.
- to revise, alter, or adapt (a photograph, manuscript, etc.) in order to serve a specific purpose or to improve the material:
to doctor a play.
- to award a doctorate to:
He did his undergraduate work in the U.S. and was doctored at Oxford.
verb (used without object)
- to practice medicine.
- Older Use. to take medicine; receive medical treatment.
- Metallurgy. (of an article being electroplated) to receive plating unevenly.
doctor
/ ˈdɒktə; dɒkˈtɔːrɪəl /
noun
- a person licensed to practise medicine
- a person who has been awarded a higher academic degree in any field of knowledge
- a person licensed to practise dentistry or veterinary medicine
- Also calledDoctor of the Church often capital a title given to any of several of the leading Fathers or theologians in the history of the Christian Church down to the late Middle Ages whose teachings have greatly influenced orthodox Christian thought
- angling any of various gaudy artificial flies
- informal.a person who mends or repairs things
- slang.a cook on a ship or at a camp
- archaic.a man, esp a teacher, of learning
- a device used for local repair of electroplated surfaces, consisting of an anode of the plating material embedded in an absorbent material containing the solution
- (in a paper-making machine) a blade that is set to scrape the roller in order to regulate the thickness of pulp or ink on it
- a cool sea breeze blowing in some countries
the Cape doctor
- go for the doctor slang.to make a great effort or move very fast, esp in a horse race
- what the doctor orderedsomething needed or desired
verb
- tr
- to give medical treatment to
- to prescribe for (a disease or disorder)
- informal.intr to practise medicine
he doctored in Easter Island for six years
- tr to repair or mend, esp in a makeshift manner
- tr to make different in order to deceive, tamper with, falsify, or adulterate
- tr to adapt for a desired end, effect, etc
- tr to castrate (a cat, dog, etc)
Derived Forms
- ˈdoctoral, adjective
Other Words From
- doctor·al doc·to·ri·al [dok-, tawr, -ee-, uh, l, -, tohr, -], adjective
- doctor·al·ly doc·tori·al·ly adverb
- doctor·less adjective
- doctor·ship noun
- sub·doctor noun
- super·doctor noun
- under·doctor noun
- un·doctored adjective
Word History and Origins
Word History and Origins
Origin of doctor1
Idioms and Phrases
see just what the doctor ordered .Example Sentences
While doctors continue to learn more about wildfire smoke’s impact on health, recent studies have shown that long-term effects on skin conditions are also a concern.
He later returned to the surgery, saying they were not making him feel better and his doctor moved him from sertraline to citalopram, a similar drug.
Earlier this week the BBC was observing doctors on a ward at Warwick Hospital when one of those critical incidents was declared.
Amid the maelstrom, doctors, nurses and other caregivers did their jobs.
She replied that she had struggled with "bleeding and chafing" for years and the doctor suggested she could have a surgical reduction, to which Shields agreed.
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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