the good doctor

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the good doctor (countable and uncountable, plural the good doctors)

1. (idiomatic) An honorific for a doctor, especially for a doctor of medicine (a physician) or for Dr. Samuel Johnson.
   • 1910, "Penn. Academy display", American Art News 8(16):4–6 (29 January 1910) - via JSTOR, page 6, column 4:

     The technique in the rendition of the texture of the robes is there, but the face is painted in so low a color key as to give the impression that the good doctor has been undergoing the nitrate of silver treatment.

   • 2005, Beryl Bainbridge (1 April 2005), "Words count", Guardian (UK) (retrieved 2017-10-23; archived from the original 2017-04-23)

     In 1746, some months after his 36th birthday, Samuel Johnson, that great literary figure of the 18th century, affectionately referred to as the Good Doctor, began work on his monumental Dictionary of the English Language.

   • 2011, Arthur T. White (2011), The 2012 Black Hole Killer, Bloomington, Indiana, USA: AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 275:

     It’s lucky for you he got himself assassinated before the good Pope’s Vatican’s ratline and America’s CIA high level Nazi SS scientists lifelines who operatively could smuggle him along with his two pals Eichmann and the good doctor Mengele, the SS Angel of Death, to Argentina.

   • 2014, Jonathan Bate (13 December 2014), "Samuel Johnson: A Life by David Nokes: review", Daily Telegraph (UK) (retrieved 2017-10-22; archived from the original 2017-03-21):

     We are presented with the orthodox view of the good Doctor as Tory Anglican, enemy of Whig and radical, Catholic and dissenter, alike.

   • 2015, R.L.G. Berlin (15 April 2015), "Happy birthday to Johnson's dictionary", Economist, (retrieved 2017-10-23; archived from the original 2016-04-15):

     Well, almost no one: according to one story, a polite lady commended the good doctor for not including swear words in the dictionary. “I see you have been looking for them,” he is said to have replied.

Sometimes used ironically; for example, in reference to Dr. Josef Mengele.

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