Definition of "doctor"

doctor

/ˈdɒktə/

noun
plural doctors
1. A physician; a member of the medical profession; one who is trained and licensed to heal the sick or injured. The final examination and qualification may award a doctor degree in which case the post-nominal letters are D.O., DPM, M.D., DMD, DDS, in the US or MBBS in the UK.
  Quotations
  By medicine life may be prolonged, yet death / Will seize the doctor too.
  1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act V, scene v]
2. 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.
3. A veterinarian; a medical practitioner who treats non-human animals.
4. A nickname for a person who has special knowledge or talents to manipulate or arrange transactions.
5. (obsolete) A teacher; one skilled in a profession or a branch of knowledge; a learned man.
  Quotations
  So from that tyme forwarde I began to ſmell the word of god, and forſoke the ſchole doctors and ſuch foolries.
  1552, Hughe Latymer [i.e., Hugh Latimer], Augustine Bernher, compiler, “[The First Sermon]”, in Certayn Godly Sermons, Made uppon the Lords Prayer, […], London: […] John Day, […], published 1562, folio 5, verso
  one of the doctors of Italy, Nicholas Macciavel
  1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Goodness and Goodness of Nature”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret
6. (dated) Any mechanical contrivance intended to remedy a difficulty or serve some purpose in an exigency.
  Quotations
  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 Technology, page 172
7. A fish, the friar skate.
8. (obsolete, nautical, slang) A ship's cook.
  Quotations
  […] old Scotch Jem the boatswain, tunes his fiddle, and the doctor, (ship's cook,) produces his tambourine; the men dance on deck, […]
  1844, William Robert Wilde, Narrative of a Voyage to Madeira, Teneriffe and Along the Shores of the Mediterranean, page 124
  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 Service, volume 5, page 212
verb
third-person singular simple present doctors, present participle doctoring, simple past and past participle doctored
1. (transitive) To act as a medical doctor to.
2. (intransitive, humorous) To act as a medical doctor.
  Quotations
  Doctor Princess: Put this on. [gives her lab coat to Finn] OK, you're a doctor now. Good luck. / Finn: Wait, wait, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait! I don't know how to doctor!
  2017, "Do No Harm", season 8, episode 2 of Adventure Time
3. (transitive) To make (someone) into an (academic) doctor; to confer a doctorate upon.
4. (transitive) To physically alter (medically or surgically) a living being in order to change growth or behavior.
5. (transitive) To genetically alter an extant species.
6. (transitive) To alter or make obscure, as with the intention to deceive, especially a document.
7. (transitive) To adulterate, drug, or poison (drink).
8. (intransitive, obsolete) To take medicine.

Definition of "doctor"

doctor

noun

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verb

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