(Luke 2:46; 5:17; Acts 5:34), a teacher. The Jewish doctors taught and disputed in synagogues, or wherever they could find an audience. Their disciples were allowed to propose to them questions. They assumed the office without any appointment to it. The doctors of the law were principally of the sect of the Pharisees. Schools were established after the destruction of Jerusalem at Babylon and Tiberias, in which academical degrees were conferred on those who passed a certain examination. Those of the school of Tiberias were called by the title "rabbi," and those of Babylon by that of "master."

Noah Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language

1. (n.) A teacher; one skilled in a profession, or branch of knowledge learned man.

2. (n.) An academic 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. (n.) One duly licensed to practice medicine; a member of the medical profession; a physician.

4. (n.) 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. (n.) The friar skate.

6. (v. t.) To treat as a physician does; to apply remedies to; to repair; as, to doctor a sick man or a broken cart.

7. (v. t.) To confer a doctorate upon; to make a doctor.

8. (v. t.) To tamper with and arrange for one's own purposes; to falsify; to adulterate; as, to doctor election returns; to doctor whisky.

9. (v. i.) To practice physic.