# prescription

Pronunciation: say "pri-SKRIP-shuhn" /pɹəˈskɹɪpʃən/

## Noun

1. A written order from an authorized medical practitioner for the provision of medicine or another treatment, including the lens specifications for a pair of glasses.
   - Simple: A written order from a doctor that lets you get medicine or another treatment.
   - _The physician wrote a prescription for a two-week course of antibiotics._
   - _She took her new glasses prescription to the optician down the street._
2. The medicine or course of treatment supplied in response to a practitioner's written order.
   - Simple: The medicine or treatment that a doctor's written order tells you to use.
   - _She had to refill her prescription before the long weekend._
   - _The pharmacist handed over the prescription in a clearly labeled bottle._
3. A recommended plan for treating or handling a problem; the course of action so recommended.
   - Simple: A plan or piece of advice for fixing or dealing with a problem.
   - _The economist offered a familiar prescription for stagnant growth._
   - _Patience and steady saving was her prescription for financial security._
4. A fixed time period within which a legal right must be exercised, after which it becomes void and can never be enforced.
   - Simple: A fixed length of time. Once it passes, a legal right can no longer be used.
   - _The court dismissed the suit, holding that prescription had extinguished the plaintiff's right of action._
   - _Many jurisdictions interrupt prescription when the creditor files a formal demand._
5. A fixed time period after which someone who has used another's property openly, peacefully, and without interruption gains full ownership of it.
   - Simple: A set period of time. After it, someone who has openly used another person's property can become its legal owner.
   - _The neighbor claimed the disputed garden by prescription, having tended it openly for decades._
   - _Civil codes allow ownership to pass by prescription only when possession has been peaceful and uninterrupted._
6. The act of formally establishing a law, regulation, or similar rule, especially in writing; a particular instance of doing so.
   - Simple: The act of making a law or rule official, especially in writing.
   - _The prescription of the new tax code required months of legislative drafting._
   - _Several prescriptions of trade regulation were issued during the reform._
7. The act of establishing ideal norms for how language ought to be used, rather than describing how it actually is used; an instance of doing so.
   - Simple: Setting rules for how language should be used, instead of just describing how people really use it.
   - _The dictionary's editors leaned toward prescription, flagging disputed usages as outright errors._
   - _Debates over the split infinitive show prescription clashing with everyday speech._

## Noun

8. Self-restraint; the limiting of one's actions, especially in keeping with a moral code or social conventions. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: Control of one's own actions, following a moral code or social rules.

## Origin

Borrowed through Middle French and Old French prescripcion from Latin praescriptio ("preface; pretext; something written ahead of time"), built from prae- ("before") plus scribere ("to write") and the noun-forming ending -tio. It is equivalent to prescribe plus -tion.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/prescription (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).