Prescribe definition

prĭ-skrīb
prescribed prescribes prescribing
See word origin
Frequency:
To set down as a rule or direction; order; ordain; direct.
verb
12
4
To order the use of a medicine or other treatment.
verb
7
2
To order or advise as a medicine or treatment.
verb
5
3
To order a medicine or other treatment.
verb
3
1
To set down or impose rules; dictate.
verb
2
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To prescribe is to make a rule, or a doctor recommending and giving official permission for a course of treatment.

When the legislature passes a law mandating that everyone recycle, this is an example of when the legislature prescribes recycling.

When a doctor determines you need antibiotics and gives you an official signed authorization that you take to the pharmacist to pick up the antibiotics, this is an example of when the doctor prescribes antibiotics.

verb
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0
To claim a right or title through long use or possession.
verb
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0
To become invalidated or outlawed by negative prescription.
verb
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To order (a drug or medical device) for use by a particular patient.

The doctor prescribed aspirin.

verb
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To specify as a required procedure or ritual; to lay down authoritatively as a guide, direction, or rule of action.
verb
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To set down as a rule, law, or direction.

Prescribed the terms of the surrender.

verb
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1
To order the use of (a medicine or other treatment).
verb
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1
To establish rules, laws, or directions.
verb
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1
(law) To invalidate or outlaw by negative prescription.
verb
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To give medical advice or prescriptions.
verb
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1
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Origin of prescribe

  • Middle English prescriben from Latin praescrībere prae- pre- scrībere to write skrībh- in Indo-European roots

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

  • From Latin praescribere, from prae (“before") and scribere (“to write").

    From Wiktionary

Prescribe Sentence Examples

  • The Mahommedan doctors of India are accustomed to prescribe the seeds.

  • I will prescribe both a topical and and oral medication; use both once a day.

  • Such a mode of procedure may be called anticipatio naturae (for in it reason is allowed to prescribe to things), and is opposed to the true method, the interpretatio naturae, in which reason follows and obeys nature, discovering her secrets by obedience and submission to rule.

  • Subsidiary to metaphysics, as the central inquiry, stand the sciences of logic and ethics, to which may be added aesthetics, constituting three normative sciences - sciences, that is, which do not, primarily, describe facts, but rather prescribe ends or set forth ideals.

  • The rules which he laid down for himself, and which are still extant in his handwriting, prescribe sixteen hours a day of close application, and prove, not only the great mental power, but also the extraordinary physical strength he must have possessed, and for which indeed, during his residence at the university, he had been remarkable.

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Words near prescribe in the Dictionary