doctor

A truncation of the proverb "an apple a day keeps the doctor away," meaning small, healthful everyday habits will help prevent medical problems in the future. People consider me eccentric for my insistence on going for a walk at dawn each morning, but an apple a day, as they say!

It is difficult to give people help or advice on something in which they are professionals, because they often feel as though they already know better than anyone else how to handle the situation or perform a given task. Mary tried to convince her boss at the bank to see a credit advisor about his growing debt, but he kept insisting that he knew how to manage his money. Doctors make the worst patients.

One who manipulates information, often by attempting to present negative news as being somehow positive. The campaign's spin doctors somehow made the candidate's poor performance in the debate look like a sign that he was the more relatable candidate.

Eating healthy foods will keep one from getting sick (and needing to see a doctor). Primarily heard in US. Have an apple for a snack, instead of those chips. An apple a day keeps the doctor away, after all.

To be exactly what one needed or wanted. The phrase does not usually refer to one's actual medical needs. I've been working on this paper all week, so a night out with friends is just what the doctor ordered! This beach vacation was just what the doctor ordered—I've never felt more relaxed.

Prov. Apples are so nutritious that if you eat an apple every day, you will not ever need to go to a doctor. Remember to take an apple in your lunch today. An apple a day keeps the doctor away. Grandma always fed us lots of apples when we visited her. She believed that an apple a day keeps the doctor away.

Jocular You are who I think you are, are you not? Oh, there you are. Doctor Livingstone, I presume?

that one is strongly advised to do as ordered or as if ordered by a doctor. I have to spend a month in Arizona. Doctor's orders. I'm doing this on doctor's orders, but I don't like it.

to give someone medical treatment, especially first aid. Give me a minute to doctor Fred up, and then we can continue our walk. I'll doctor up Fred with a bandage; you can go on ahead.

Fig. exactly what is required, especially for health or comfort. That meal was delicious, Bob. Just what the doctor ordered. Bob: Would you like something to drink? Mary: Yes, a cold glass of water would be just what the doctor ordered.

someone who gives a twisted or deviously deceptive version of an event. (Usually in the context of manipulating the news for political reasons.) Things were going bad for the candidate, so he got himself a new spin doctor. A good spin doctor could have made the incident appear far less damaging.

Inf. Fig. You are in a position to tell me what to do.; I yield to you and your knowledge of this matter. (Usually jocular; the person being addressed is most likely not a physician.) Bill: Eat your dinner, then you'll feel more like playing ball. Get some energy! Tom: Okay, you're the doctor. Teacher: You'd better study the first two chapters more thoroughly. Bob: You're the doctor.

exactly what is wanted or needed An evening without the kids was just what the doctor ordered. Related vocabulary: just the ticket

something that you say which means eating an apple every day will keep you healthy If 'an apple a day keeps the doctor away,' then why have I got this terrible cold?

to be exactly what is wanted or needed 'Andy's making us some lunch.' 'Great, just what the doctor ordered.' A night out on their own was just what the doctor ordered.

someone whose job is to make sure that the information the public receives about a particular event makes them approve of the organization they work for, usually a political party In politics, this is the age of the spin doctor and image maker.

A small preventive treatment wards off serious problems, as in He exercises regularly-an apple a day is his motto. This idiom shortens the proverb An apple a day keeps the doctor away, first cited about 1630.

Exactly what was needed. For example, This steak is just what the doctor ordered, or You've been a great help in our office-just what the doctor ordered. This expression alludes to a physician's prescription for a cure. [First half of 1900s]

An individual charged with getting others to interpret a statement or event from a particular viewpoint, as in Charlie is the governor's spin doctor. This term, born about 1980 along with spin control, uses doctor in the colloquial sense of "one who repairs something."

A 19th-century explorer named Dr. David Livingstone became something of a national hero through his articles and lectures about his adventures in Africa. In 1864, Livingstone led an expedition to discover the source of the Nile. When little to nothing was heard from or about Livingstone after many years, Europeans and Americans became concerned. In 1871, the publisher of the New York Herald hired Henry Stanley, a newspaper reporter, to find Livingstone. Heading a group of some two hundred men, Stanley headed into the African interior. After nearly eight months he found Livingstone in a small village on the shore of Lake Tanganyika. As Stanley described the encounter, “As I advanced slowly toward him I noticed he was pale, looked wearied . . . I would have embraced him, only, he being an Englishman, I did not know how he would receive me; so I . . . walked deliberately to him, took off my hat, and said, ‘Dr. Livingstone, I presume?' The phrase “‘Dr. Livingstone, I presume?” caught the public's fancy, and any number of would-be wits greeted friends with it until the phrase lost all traces of cleverness. But that never stopped people from continuing to use it long past the public's memory of who Livingstone or Stanley were.