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. Zool.
The friar skate.
[Prov. Eng.]
Doctors' Commons. See under Commons. -- Doctor's stuff, physic, medicine. G. Eliot. -- Doctor fish Zool., 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.
© Webster 1913.
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]
© Webster 1913.
Doc"tor, v. i.
To practice physic.
[Colloq.]
© Webster 1913.