Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A person who practices veterinary medicine.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One who practises the art of treating disease and injuries in domestic animals, surgically or medically.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun One skilled in the treatment of diseases of cattle or domestic animals; a veterinary surgeon. Often abbreviated to vet.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A medical doctor who treats non-human animals.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a doctor who practices veterinary medicine

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin veterinarius ("farrier", "cattle doctor", "veterinarian"), from veterinum ("beast of burden"), from vehiterinum, from veho ("to bear", "to carry")

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Examples

  • Horrified, she calls the veterinarian and asks what to do.

    Omri Marcus: The Middle East and the Dead Dog in the Living Room Omri Marcus 2011

  • I called our veterinarian and made an appointment to bring the kittens in and get their eyes checked.

    Chicken Soup for the Soul: Loving Our Cats Jack Canfield 2008

  • I called our veterinarian and made an appointment to bring the kittens in and get their eyes checked.

    Chicken Soup for the Soul: Loving Our Cats Jack Canfield 2008

  • Our regular veterinarian is an avid pro-lifer and refuses to spay or neuter his patients!

    Spay/Neuter in Spanish 2005

  • I called our veterinarian and made an appointment to bring the kittens in and get their eyes checked.

    Chocolate for a Lover’s Heart Kay Allenbaugh 1999

  • I called our veterinarian and made an appointment to bring the kittens in and get their eyes checked.

    Chocolate for a Lover’s Heart Kay Allenbaugh 1999

  • "We called our veterinarian team in and they worked intensively over the next 24 hours to try and save her, but unfortunately she succumbed to a toxic infection."

    CBC | Top Stories News 2011

  • She called the veterinarian listed on the rabies tag, reading to the person who answered both the dog's name, Kenzy, and the tag number.

    DentonRC.com Local News 2010

  • When Myrick's other goat, Maya, went into labor Sunday morning, she called a veterinarian who specializes in livestock, but he was out of the county on another emergency call.

    The Daily News - News 2010

  • When Myrick's other goat, Maya, went into labor Sunday morning, she called a veterinarian who specializes in livestock, but he was out of the county on another emergency call.

    The Daily News - News 2010

Comments

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  • The Vet's Wife's Refrigerator

    By Baxter Black, DVM

    A scream from the kitchen. The thud of a faint.

    She sighs and arises and walks with restraint.

    Her neighbor lays peaceful, eyes fixed in a stare

    She’s passed out in front of the new Frigidaire.

    She looks at the rack with eggs in its keep

    Winking up at her’s the eye of a sheep.

    There’s a bottle of PenStrep near the Swanson’s Pot Pies

    And down in the crisper’s a bagful of flies.

    The butter tray’s filled with test tubes of blood

    Marked, “E.I.A. samples, from Tucker’s old stud.�?

    High on the shelf near a platter of cheese

    Is a knotted, but leaking, obscene plastic sleeve.

    Fecal containers are stacked, side by side,

    With yesterday’s piece of chicken, home fried.

    The freezer’s a dither of guts, lungs and spleens

    Scattered amongst the Bird's-Eye green beans.

    Her home’s a museum of animal parts.

    Lymphomatous lymph nodes, selenium hearts.

    Enough tissue samples to hold up a bridge

    But why do they always end up in the fridge?

    But she doesn’t worry or turn up her nose,

    She’s the wife of a vet, it’s the life that she chose.

    But maybe he’d worry at lunch if he knew

    He might just be dining on Whirl-Pack stew!

    March 19, 2008

  • Ha! Great poem.

    This word is also what I wanted to be when I was a kid. Actually I wanted to be an animal doctor, not a word.

    Real doctors treat more than one species. :)

    March 19, 2008

  • My daughter wants to be an animal doctor, too (not a vet). Totally agree re: real doctors - and where does that leave dentists??

    March 19, 2008