prescription

[ pri-skrip-shuhn ]
See synonyms for prescription on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. Medicine/Medical.

    • a direction, usually written, by the physician to the pharmacist for the preparation and use of a medicine or remedy.

    • the medicine prescribed: Take this prescription three times a day.

  2. an act of prescribing.

  1. that which is prescribed.

  2. Law.

    • Also called positive prescription . a long or immemorial use of some right with respect to a thing so as to give a right to continue such use.

    • Also called positive prescription . the process of acquiring rights by uninterrupted assertion of the right over a long period of time.

    • Also called negative prescription . the loss of rights to legal remedy due to the limitation of time within which an action can be taken.

adjective
  1. (of drugs) sold only upon medical prescription; ethical.: Compare over-the-counter (def. 2).

Origin of prescription

1
1250–1300; Middle English <Medieval Latin praescrīptiōn- (stem of praescrīptiō) legal possession (of property), law, order, literally, a writing before, hence, a heading on a document. See prescript, -ion

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use prescription in a sentence

  • The series of prescriptions and suggestions with regard to children, for instance, could be read in chronological sequence.

  • Whether these prescriptions are good or bad, they are prescriptions which exact the performance of certain actions.

    My Religion | Leo Tolstoy
  • At length I began even to make up drugs myself according to Voit's prescriptions.

  • The "Physician's Pledge" was circulated, and much sentiment created against alcoholic prescriptions.

    Two Decades | Frances W. Graham and Georgeanna M. Gardenier
  • Great reliance is in general placed upon prescriptions, which profess to suit diseases in every stage and circumstance.

    A Treatise on Sheep: | Ambrose Blacklock

British Dictionary definitions for prescription

prescription

/ (prɪˈskrɪpʃən) /


noun
    • written instructions from a physician, dentist, etc, to a pharmacist stating the form, dosage strength, etc, of a drug to be issued to a specific patient

    • the drug or remedy prescribed

  1. (modifier) (of drugs) available legally only with a doctor's prescription

    • written instructions from an optician specifying the lenses needed to correct defects of vision

    • (as modifier): prescription glasses

  1. the act of prescribing

  2. something that is prescribed

  3. a long established custom or a claim based on one

  4. law

    • the uninterrupted possession of property over a stated period of time, after which a right or title is acquired (positive prescription)

    • the barring of adverse claims to property, etc, after a specified period of time has elapsed, allowing the possessor to acquire title (negative prescription)

    • the right or title acquired in either of these ways

Origin of prescription

1
C14: from legal Latin praescriptiō an order, prescription; see prescribe

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012