Doctors
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Related to Doctors: Doctors Without Borders
doc·tor
(dŏk′tər)n.
1.
a. A person who is licensed to practice medicine and has trained at a school of medicine or a school of osteopathic medicine; a physician.
b. Any of certain other healthcare professionals, such as a dentist, optometrist, chiropractor, podiatrist, or veterinarian.
2. A practitioner of alternative medicine or folk medicine who does not have traditional medical credentials.
3.
a. A person who has earned the highest academic degree, usually a PhD, awarded by a college or university in a specified discipline.
b. A person awarded an honorary degree by a college or university.
4. Abbr. Dr. Used as a title and form of address for a person holding the degree of doctor.
5. Roman Catholic Church An eminent theologian.
6. A rig or device contrived for remedying an emergency situation or for doing a special task.
v. doc·tored, doc·tor·ing, doc·tors
v.tr.
1. Informal To give medical treatment to: "[He] does more than practice medicine. He doctors people. There's a difference" (Charles Kuralt).
2. To repair, especially in a makeshift manner; rig.
3.
a. To falsify or change in such a way as to make favorable to oneself: doctored the evidence.
b. To add ingredients so as to improve or conceal the taste, appearance, or quality of: doctor the soup with a dash of sherry.
c. To alter or modify for a specific end: doctored my standard speech for the small-town audience.
d. Baseball To deface or apply a substance to (the ball) in violation of the rules in order to throw a pitch with extraordinary movement: was ejected because he doctored the ball with a piece of sandpaper.
v.intr. Informal
To practice medicine.
[Middle English, an expert, authority, from Old French docteur, from Latin doctor, teacher, from docēre, to teach; see dek- in Indo-European roots.]
doc′tor·al (dŏk′tə-rəl, dŏk-tôr′əl) adj.
doc′tor·ly adj.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Doctors
See Also: PROFESSIONS
- As with eggs, there is no such thing as a poor doctor; doctors are either good or bad —Fuller Albright
The author of this simile is a doctor.
- A breast or a foot is examined [by doctors lacking in empathy] like a pack of cigarettes —Hildegarde Knef, quoted in interview with Rex Reed
- Carrying his little black bag like a small sample cut from the shadow of death —Helen Hudson
This observation from Hudson’s novel, Meyer Meyer, is made by the main character about his doctor/brother-in-law.
- Commonly, physicians, like beer, are best when they are old; and lawyers, like bread, when they are young and new —Thomas Fuller
- A doctor knows the human body as a cabman knows the town; he is well acquainted with all the great thoroughfares and small turnings; he’s intimate with all the principle edifices, but he cannot tell you what is going on inside of any one of them —Punch, 1856
- The fame of a surgeon is like the fame of an actor; it exists only as long as they live, and their talent is no longer appreciable after they have disappeared —Honoré de Balzac
- Physicians are like kings; they brook no contradiction —John Webster
Similes Dictionary, 1st Edition. © 1988 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
doctors
These are saints whose doctrinal writings have special authority either by papal decree or by the Church’s universal agreement. These include Gregory the Great, Augustine, Basil, John Chrysostom, and Gregory of Nazianus.
Dictionary of Unfamiliar Words by Diagram Group Copyright © 2008 by Diagram Visual Information Limited