prescription

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”).

noun

1. (medicine, pharmacy, pharmacology) 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.
2. (medicine) The medicine or treatment provided by such an order.
   I need you to pick up gramma's prescriptions on your way home.
3. (figurative) Any plan of treatment or planned treatment.
   Early to bed and early to rise is a prescription for a long, healthy, and terrible life.
4. (law">law) Synonym of enactment, the act of establishing a law">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. 1997, Richard G. Alexander, “Iran and Libya Sanctions Act of 1996: Congress Exceeds Its Jurisdiction to Prescribe Law”, in Washington & Lee Law Review, page 1609
5. (linguistics) 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.
6. (law) An established time period within which a right must be exercised and after which it is null and permanently unenforceable.
7. (law) An established time period after which a person who has uninterruptedly, peacefully, and publicly used another's property acquires full ownership of it.
8. (obsolete) Synonym of self-restraint, limiting of one's actions especially according to a moral code or social conventions.

adj

1. (of a drug, etc.) only available with a physician or nurse practitioner's written prescription
   Many powerful pain killers are prescription drugs in the U.S.