prescribe

Verb

prescribe (third-person singular simple present prescribes, present participle prescribing, simple past and past participle prescribed)

1. To order (a drug or medical device) for use by a particular patient (under licensed authority).
   • The doctor prescribed aspirin.
   • And most neurologists are in the habit of prescribing antispasticity drugs like tizanidine and baclofen, which are oral and inexpensive, but which cause drowsiness and weaken every muscle in the body, not just the target ones.2009 March 17, Donald G. Mcneil Jr., “After a Stroke, Freeing Muscles With Botox”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 30 Jun 2017
2. To specify by writing as a required procedure or ritual; to lay down authoritatively as a guide, direction, or rule of action.
   • The property meets the criteria prescribed by the regulations.
   • Prescribe not us our duties.c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
3. To develop or assert a right; to make a claim (by prescription).
   • Most probable that one presentation and 40 years possession thereafter, is sufficient to prescribe a right of patronage.1753, Andrew McDouall, An Institute of the Laws of Scotland in Civil Rights […] , volume 3, Table of Contents, page 86
   • […] held, in a question with a party who had acquired right from the commissioners of the forfeited estates to the estate of the forfeited superior, as it stood in his person, that the crown charter of the vassal was a valid title on which to prescribe a right to the coal […]1834, Patrick Shaw, Digest of Cases Decided in the Courts of Session, Teinds, and Justiciary in the House of Lords, 1821–1833 […] , page 135
4. To become invalidated or unenforceable by prescription, to lapse