prescription
//pɹəˈskɹɪp.ʃən//
Forms
- Plural
- prescriptions
Definitions
1.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.
- 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.The medicine or treatment provided by such an order.
- I need you to pick up gramma's prescriptions on your way home.
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.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.
Frequency
Overall
Uncommon· #3643
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Rare
- General reading & writing
- Uncommon
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Rare
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French, from Old French prescripcion, from Latin praescriptio (“preface; pretext; something written ahead of time”), from prae- (“pre-, before”) + scribere (“to write”) + -tio (“-tion, forming nouns”).
Equivalent to prescribe + -tion.