præscription

Noun

prescription (countable and uncountable, plural prescriptions)

1. (pharmacy) A 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.

   Synonyms:

   scrip, forescript, Rx, ℞

2. The medicine or treatment provided by such an order.
   • I need you to pick up gramma's prescriptions on your way home.
3. (figuratively) 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.
4. Synonym 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.1997, Richard G. Alexander, “Iran and Libya Sanctions Act of 1996: Congress Exceeds Its Jurisdiction to Prescribe Law”, in Washington & Lee Law Review, page 1609

   Synonyms:

   enactment

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

   Synonyms:

   extinctive prescription, liberative prescription

See all 8 meanings of prescription