prescriptionnoun/pɹəˈskɹɪp.ʃən/

• 1

  medicinepharmacologysciencesA written order from an authorized medical practitioner for provision of a medicine or other treatment, such as (ophthalmology) the specific lenses needed for a pair of glasses.

  • The surgeon had written thousands of prescriptions for pain killers without proper examinations before the police raided the clinic.
  • An old traditional prescription for provoking erotic inclinations ran as follows, The toe of the foot of a man, anointed with oil, or honey, or the ashes of a weasel.
• 2

  medicinesciencesThe medicine or treatment provided by such an order.

  • I need you to pick up gramma's prescriptions on your way home.
  • "Oh, yes; she is the only sort of person for a nurse. She always," cried Lady Anne, with a sneer, "comes to you with a receipt for a pudding in one hand to make you ill, and then a prescription in the other to cure you."
• 3

  Any plan of treatment or handling; the treatment or handling thus provided.

  • Early to bed and early to rise is a prescription for a long, healthy, and terrible life.
  • Change is the universal prescription for a wounded spirit. "It will do you so much good," is the constant remark.
• 4

  lawSynonym of enactment, the act of establishing a law, regulation, etc., particularly in writing; an instance of this.

  • A statute that cannot find justification for its prescription in one or more of these principles violates international law.
• 5

  human-scienceslinguisticssciencesThe act of establishing or formalizing ideal norms for language use, as opposed to describing the actual norms of such use; an instance of this.

• 6

  lawAn established time period within which a right must be exercised and after which it is null and permanently unenforceable.

• 7

  lawAn established time period after which a person who has uninterruptedly, peacefully, and publicly used another's property acquires full ownership of it.

• 8

  obsoleteSynonym of self-restraint, limiting of one's actions especially according to a moral code or social conventions.

  • There is an air of prescription about him which is always agreeable to Sir Leicester; he receives it as a kind of tribute.