Doc"tor , v. i. To practice physic.
[Colloq.]
Doc"tor , v. t. [imp. & p. p. Doctored (?);
p. pr. & vb. n.
Doctoring.]
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 (?), n. [OF. doctur, L. doctor, teacher, fr.
docere to teach. See Docile.]
1. A teacher; one skilled in a
profession, or branch of knowledge; a learned man. [Obs.]
One of the doctors of Italy, Nicholas
Macciavel.
Bacon.
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.
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.]
Doctors' Commons. See under Commons. --
Doctor's stuff, physic, medicine. G. Eliot.
-- Doctor fish
(Zoöl.), 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.
Hear it pronounced