doctor Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a licensed medical practitioner
    MD; medico; physician; doc; Dr..
    • I felt so bad I went to see my doctor
  2. noun (Roman Catholic Church) a title conferred on 33 saints who distinguished themselves through the orthodoxy of their theological teaching
    Doctor of the Church.
    • the Doctors of the Church greatly influenced Christian thought down to the late Middle Ages
  3. noun children take the roles of physician or patient or nurse and pretend they are at the physician's office
    • the children explored each other's bodies by playing the game of doctor
  4. noun a person who holds Ph.D. degree (or the equivalent) from an academic institution
    Dr..
    • she is a doctor of philosophy in physics
  5. verb alter and make impure, as with the intention to deceive
    doctor up; sophisticate.
    • Sophisticate rose water with geraniol
  6. verb give medical treatment to
  7. verb restore by replacing a part or putting together what is torn or broken
    repair; touch on; fix; furbish up; restore; mend; bushel.
    • She repaired her TV set
    • Repair my shoes please

WordNet


Doc"tor noun
Etymology
OF. doctur, L. doctor, teacher, fr. docere to teach. See Docile.
Definitions
  1. A teacher; one skilled in a profession, or branch of knowledge learned man. Obs.
    One of the doctors of Italy, Nicholas Macciavel. Bacon.
  2. An academical title, originally meaning a men so well versed in his department as to be qualified to teach it. Hence: One who has taken the highest degree conferred by a university or college, or has received a diploma of the highest degree; as, a doctor of divinity, of law, of medicine, of music, or of philosophy. Such diplomas may confer an honorary title only.
  3. One duly licensed to practice medicine; a member of the medical profession; a physician.
    By medicine life may be prolonged, yet death Will seize the doctor too. Shak.
  4. Any mechanical contrivance intended to remedy a difficulty or serve some purpose in an exigency; as, the doctor of a calico-printing machine, which is a knife to remove superfluous coloring matter; the doctor, or auxiliary engine, called also donkey engine.
  5. (Zoöl.) The friar skate. Prov. Eng.
Doc"tor transitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Doctored ; present participle & verbal noun Doctoring
Definitions
  1. To treat as a physician does; to apply remedies to; to repair; as, to doctor a sick man or a broken cart. Colloq.
  2. To confer a doctorate upon; to make a doctor.
  3. To tamper with and arrange for one's own purposes; to falsify; to adulterate; as, to doctor election returns; to doctor whisky. Slang
Doc"tor intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To practice physic. Colloq.

Webster 1913