Word.ws English Dictionary

barefoot doctor

barefoot doctor noun: a farmer or rural resident with basic medical training who worked as a doctor in rural areas of the People's Republic of China from the mid-1960s until the 1980s, generally under a government-sponsored program.

Noun

barefoot doctor (plural barefoot doctors)

  1. (historical) A farmer or rural resident with basic medical training who worked as a doctor in rural areas of the People's Republic of China from the mid-1960s until the 1980s, generally under a government-sponsored program.

Forms of barefoot doctor

pluralbarefoot doctors

Origin of barefoot doctor

Derived from the practice of farmers in southern China working barefoot in rice paddies.

Questions about barefoot doctor

What does barefoot doctor mean?
Barefoot doctor means a farmer or rural resident with basic medical training who worked as a doctor in rural areas of the People's Republic of China from the mid-1960s until the 1980s, generally under a government-sponsored program.
What part of speech is barefoot doctor?
Barefoot doctor is a noun.
What is the plural of barefoot doctor?
The plural of barefoot doctor is barefoot doctors.

Words near barefoot doctor in the dictionary

  1. barefisted
  2. barefoot
  3. barefoot all over
  4. barefoot and pregnant
  5. Barefoot Bay
  6. barefoot doctor
  7. barefoot doctors
  8. barefoot shoe
  9. barefoot shoes
  10. barefooted
  11. barefootedness

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: barefoot doctor (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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