Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Doctor?

\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 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. (Zo["o]l.) The friar skate. [Prov. Eng.] {Doctors' Commons}. See under {Commons}. {Doctor's stuff}, physic, medicine. --G. Eliot. {Doctor fish} (Zo["o]l.), 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}.
\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\, v. i. To practice physic. [Colloq.]