doctor
doctor , noun
[Old French doctur, Latin doctor, teacher, from docere to teach. See Docile.]
1.
A teacher; one skilled in a profession, or branch of knowledge; a learned man. [Obsolete]
One of the doctors of Italy, Nicholas Macciavel.
2.
An academical title, originally meaning a man 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.
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.
(Zoology) The friar skate. [Provincial English]
Collocations (3)
Doctors' Commons , See under Commons.
Doctor's stuff , physic, medicine. — G. Eliot
Doctor fish (Zoology) , any fish of the genus Acanthurus; the surgeon fish; -- so called from a sharp lancetlike spine on each side of the tail. Also called barber fish. See Surgeon fish.
Doctor , transitive verb
1.
To treat as a physician does; to apply remedies to; to repair; as, to doctor a sick man or a broken cart. [Colloquial]
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]
Doctor , intransitive verb
To practice physic. [Colloquial]