prescribe
Formsprescribes, prescribing, prescribed
- 1To order a drug or medical device for a particular patient, acting under licensed medical authority.
Her physician prescribed a low-dose statin to manage her cholesterol.
Only licensed practitioners may prescribe controlled substances.
Similarorder
Note
Authority is what separates this sense from advice. Anyone may recommend aspirin, but only a licensed practitioner can prescribe it, and the order is tied to one patient. The drug is the verb's object: a doctor prescribes baclofen for a patient, never the patient. A whole profession can be said to be in the habit of prescribing a class of drugs, which makes the verb a natural fit for describing clinical practice.
- 2To lay down authoritatively as a rule, direction, or required procedure; to specify in writing what must be done.
Like the stage directions in a script, dictating each movement an actor is required to make.
The constitution prescribes the procedure for amending its own articles.
Safety regulations prescribe the exact protective gear workers must wear.
Similarstipulate, specify, dictate, decree, mandate
Oppositeproscribe, prohibit, forbid
Note
Here the Latin shows through most plainly. Praescrībere joins prae- ("before") and scrībere ("to write"), so to prescribe is to write down in advance what others must follow. Modern use leans heavily on the participle: criteria prescribed by the regulations, the prescribed procedure. Shakespeare's Lear could still say "Prescribe not us our duties," with the person as a bare object. Today the person usually comes after to or for.
- 3To develop or assert a legal right by making a claim founded on long, uninterrupted use, a process known as prescription.
Like winning a claim to a footpath simply because the public has used it unchallenged for generations.
The landowner sought to prescribe an easement after decades of unchallenged access.
Tenants may prescribe certain rights when they occupy property openly for the statutory period.
Note
Long possession is what drives this sense. Andrew McDouall's Institute of the Laws of Scotland (1753) holds that one presentation and forty years' possession suffice "to prescribe a right of patronage." The claimant is the subject and the right is the object. Its mirror image is the sense of lapsing: the same passage of time that lets one party prescribe a right can make another's claim prescribe and die.
- 4Of a right, claim, or debt, to become invalid or unenforceable because the legal time limit has run out.
Like a warranty that expires: once the deadline passes, you can no longer make a claim.
Under the civil code, the claim prescribed before the plaintiff could file suit.
Old debts may prescribe once the statutory period expires.
Note
A civil-law usage in which the verb turns intransitive. Its subject is the obligation or right of action itself, with no object: the claim prescribes, the debt prescribes, much as a lease lapses. Once the fixed period has run, the courts will no longer enforce it. Lapse is the plain-English equivalent, and it is the safer choice outside legal writing.
Practice
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Origin
Borrowed from Latin praescribere, a combination of prae- ("before, in front") and scribere ("to write").