ice-tong doctor, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

ice-tong doctor n.

also ice tong

[ice tongs, i.e. a nickname for the tools used by an illegal abortionist, who often compounded one crime with another]

1. (US und.) an abortionist.

1909

‘The Lang. of Crooks’ in Wash. Post 20 June 4/2: [paraphrasing J. Sullivan] An illegal practitioner of medicine is an ice-tong doctor.

2. (US drugs) a doctor who is happy to supply illegal drugs.

1933		D. Maurer ‘Junker Lingo’ in AS VIII:2 27: Drugs are sold by peddlers and ice-tong doctors (illegal practictioners who also sell dope).
1936		Literary Digest (US) 16 May 32: Since there is no national statute, the Federal men would have been powerless to prosecute the ‘ice-tong doctor’ who sold the boy his ‘reefers’.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1953		Anslinger & Tompkins Traffic In Narcotics 311: ice-tong doctor. An illegal practitioner of medicine who also sells drugs.
1971		E.E. Landy Underground Dict. (1972) 108: ice tong. n. Medical doctor.