Definition of PRESCRIPTION

prescription

Plural: prescriptions

Noun

  • directions prescribed beforehand; the action of prescribing authoritative rules or directions
    • "I tried to follow her prescription for success"
  • a drug that is available only with written instructions from a doctor or dentist to a pharmacist
    • "he told the doctor that he had been taking his prescription regularly"
  • written instructions for an optician on the lenses for a given person
  • written instructions from a physician or dentist to a druggist concerning the form and dosage of a drug to be issued to a given patient
  • 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 medicine or treatment provided by such an order.
  • Any plan of treatment or handling; the treatment or handling thus provided.
  • Synonym of enactment, the act of establishing a law, regulation, etc., particularly in writing; an instance of this.
  • 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.
  • An established time period within which a right must be exercised and after which it is null and permanently unenforceable.
  • An established time period after which a person who has uninterruptedly, peacefully, and publicly used another's property acquires full ownership of it.
  • Synonym of self-restraint, limiting of one's actions especially according to a moral code or social conventions.

Adjective

  • available only with a doctor's written prescription
    • "a prescription drug"

Adj

  • only available with a physician or nurse practitioner's written prescription (of a drug, etc.)

Examples

  • Early to bed and early to rise is a prescription for a long, healthy, and terrible life.
  • I need you to pick up gramma's prescriptions on your way home.
  • Many powerful pain killers are prescription drugs in the U.S.
  • The surgeon had written thousands of prescriptions for pain killers without proper examinations before the police raided the clinic.

Origin / 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”).

Synonyms

ethical drug, prescription drug, prescription medicine, Rx, acquisitive prescription, enactment, extinctive prescription, forescript, liberative prescription, limiting of one's actions especially according to a moral code or social conventions, scrip, self-restraint, usucaption, ℞

Antonyms

nonprescription, over-the-counter drug, over-the-counter medicine

Scrabble Score: 18

prescription: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Word
prescription: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
prescription: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 22

prescription: valid Words With Friends Word