Word.ws English Dictionary

spin doctor

spin doctor noun: a person employed to gloss over a poor public image (or present it in a better light) in business and politics, especially after unfavourable results; a lobbyist; a PR person.

Noun

spin doctor (plural spin doctors)

  1. A person employed to gloss over a poor public image (or present it in a better light) in business and politics, especially after unfavourable results; a lobbyist; a PR person.
    • Many believed that the reduction in public spending was a disaster but the spin doctors presented it as a triumph for lower taxation.
    • A dozen men in good suits and women in silk dresses will circulate smoothly among the reporters, spouting confident opinions. They won't be just press agents trying to impart a favorable spin to a routine release. They'll be the Spin Doctors, senior advisers to the candidates, and they'll be...1984 October 21, “The Debate and the Spin Doctors”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

Verb

spin doctor (third-person singular simple present spin doctors, present participle spin doctoring, simple past and past participle spin doctored)

  1. (idiomatic, transitive) To generate spin (a favorable interpretation or bias).

spin doctor meaning in Tamil

spin doctor in Tamil

ஓரவாரப் பரப்பறிஞர்

Synonyms of spin doctor

Forms of spin doctor

Noun
pluralspin doctors
alternative form (rare)spindoctor
Verb
third-person singular presentspin doctors
present participlespin doctoring
past participlespin doctored
pastspin doctored

Origin of spin doctor

From spin (“a favorable comment or interpretation”) + doctor. First use appears c. 1984 in the New York Times.

Words formed from spin doctor

Questions about spin doctor

What does spin doctor mean?
Spin doctor means a person employed to gloss over a poor public image (or present it in a better light) in business and politics, especially after unfavourable results; a lobbyist; a PR person.
What is spin doctor in Tamil?
Spin doctor in Tamil is ஓரவாரப் பரப்பறிஞர். See Spin doctor meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is spin doctor?
Spin doctor can be a noun or a verb.
What is the plural of spin doctor?
The plural of spin doctor is spin doctors.

Words near spin doctor in the dictionary

  1. spin button
  2. spin buttons
  3. spin class
  4. spin classes
  5. spin control
  6. spin doctor
  7. spin doctored
  8. spin doctoring
  9. spin doctorings
  10. spin doctors
  11. spin down

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: spin doctor (page history and authors); spin doctor (Tamil Wiktionary) (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-spin doctor.wav.

Cite this entry: “spin doctor.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/spin_doctor. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.