Verb "doctor"

[Bassim]

I have tried to use "doctor" in my sentences. Would you please correct my mistakes?

1. John went with his newly bought second-hand car to the mechanic, and they told him the milometer was doctored.
2. The CEO was accused of doctoring the sales figures.
3. The trial collapsed because the police doctored the evidence.

 

[bhaisahab]

They are OK. I would prefer "had been doctored" in #1.

 

[GoesStation]

The device that records distance traveled is an odometer, at least in AmE.

 

[tedmc]

2. With figures, I prefer using "manipulated".

 

[Rover_KE]

Bassim wants to know whether he used the verb 'doctor' correctly. The answer is yes.

There are alternatives, but that wasn't the question.

 

[bhaisahab]

The device that records distance traveled is an odometer, at least in AmE.

It's a milometer in BrE.

 

[emsr2d2]

It's a milometer in BrE.

Also spelt "mileometer", which is how I've always spelt it. I didn't realise "milometer" was an accepted spelling until this thread.

 

[Roman55]

Odometer is used in BrE too, and is a device that measures distance travalled by a vehicle.

Strictly speaking, a milometer measures the number of miles travelled.

 

[GoesStation]

It's a milometer in BrE.

Is the metric version a kilometerometer? I sure hope so!

 

[bhaisahab]

Perhaps it's a kilometreometer. ;-)

 

[TheParser]

NOT A TEACHER

In my opinion, learners who are interested in speaking idiomatic American English should NOT use the verb "doctor" in the OP's first sentence.

I, as a non-teacher member, recommend that learners use "doctor" only in reference to evidence -- not to devices.

Thus, some (many?) Americans would, indeed, feel that the OP's use of "doctor" in the first sentence is NOT strictly "correct."

 

[bhaisahab]

It's perfectly correct in BrE and, I believe, in AusE.

 

[GoesStation]

Thus, some (many?) Americans would, indeed, feel that the OP's use of "doctor" in the first sentence is NOT strictly "correct."

I think you may be the only American to hold that opinion. Doctored books, for example, are all too common both in accounting and in American English descriptions of them.

 

[TheParser]

Doctored books, for example, are all too common both in accounting and in American English descriptions of them.

NOT A TEACHER

Exactly.

It refers to documents, etc.

Not to devices. As I tried to explain, some (many?) Americans would feel this sentence to sound very strange: "I think that the odometer has been doctored."