Doctor
Pronunciation
- UK IPA: /ˈdɒk.tə/
- US IPA: /ˈdɑk.tɚ/
Alternative forms
- doctour obsolete
Origin
From Middle English doctor, doctour ("an expert, authority on a subject"), from Anglo-Norman doctour, from Latin doctor ("teacher"), from doceÅ ("I teach"). Displaced native Middle English lerare ("doctor, teacher") (from Middle English leren ("to teach, instruct") from Old English lÇ£ran, lÄ“ran ("to teach, instruct, guide"), compare Old English lÄrÄ“ow ("teacher, master")).
Full definition of doctor
Noun
doctor
(plural doctors)- A physician; a member of the medical profession; one who is trained and licensed to heal the sick. The final examination and qualification may award a doctor degree in which case the post-nominal letters are Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine, DPM, , DMD, DDS, DPT, DC, in the US or MBBS in the UK.If you still feel unwell tomorrow, see your doctor.
- ShakespeareBy medicine life may be prolonged, yet death
Will seize the doctor too. - A person who has attained a doctorate, such as a Ph.D. or Th.D. or one of many other terminal degrees conferred by a college or university.
- A veterinarian; a medical practitioner who treats animals.
- A nickname for a person who has special knowledge or talents to manipulate or arrange transactions.
- (obsolete) A teacher; one skilled in a profession or a branch of knowledge; a learned man.
- Francis Baconone of the doctors of Italy, Nicholas Macciavel
- (dated) Any mechanical contrivance intended to remedy a difficulty or serve some purpose in an exigency.the doctor of a calico-printing machine, which is a knife to remove superfluous colouring matterthe doctor, or auxiliary engine, also called "donkey engine"
- 2010, Ramesh Bangia, Dictionary of Information Technology (page 172)The use of a disk doctor may be the only way of recovering valuable data following a disk crash.
- A fish, the friar skate.
Synonyms
- (physician) doc informal, family doctor, general practitioner, GP UK, medic, physician, sawbones slang, surgeon (who undertakes surgery)
- (veterinarian) vet, veterinarian, veterinary, veterinary surgeon
Derived terms
See also Types of academic doctor belowRelated terms
Verb
- (transitive) To act as a medical doctor to.Her children doctored her back to health.
- (transitive) To make (someone) into an (academic) doctor; to confer a doctorate upon.
- (transitive) To physically alter (medically or surgically) a living being in order to change growth or behavior.They doctored their apple trees by vigorous pruning, and now the dwarfed trees are easier to pick.We may legally doctor a pet to reduce its libido.
- (transitive) To genetically alter an extant species.''Mendel's discoveries showed how the evolution of a species may be doctored.
- (transitive) To alter or make obscure, as with the intention to deceive, especially a document.To doctor the signature of an instrument with intent to defraud is an example of forgery.