vet
Definitions
General English
- verb to check someone or something carefully to see if they are suitable
Banking
- verb to examine something carefully
Law
Military
- noun a person who is qualified to give medical treatment and surgery to animals
- verb to check a person’s history and family and social connections, in order to establish whether they are suitable for a job or to have access to classified information
Politics
- verb to examine someone carefully to see if they are suitable for a job
Slang
- noun a veteran (soldier). A term best-known in the context of the post-Vietnam War era.
Origin & History of “vet”
Vet is short for veterinary surgeon. As a verb, it was originally used (in the 1890s) for ‘examine an animal medically’, but before the end of the 19th century this had broadened out to ‘investigate, screen’. Veterinary (18th c.) itself came from Latin veterīnārius, a derivative of veterīnus ‘of cattle and similar domestic animals’.
