Prescribe meaning

prĭ-skrīb'
To set down as a rule or direction; order; ordain; direct.
verb
3
1
To order the use of a medicine or other treatment.
verb
2
2
To order or advise as a medicine or treatment.
verb
2
3
To order a medicine or other treatment.
verb
1
1
To set down or impose rules; dictate.
verb
0
0
Advertisement
To give medical advice or prescriptions.
verb
0
0
To order (a drug or medical device) for use by a particular patient.

The doctor prescribed aspirin.

verb
0
0
To specify as a required procedure or ritual; to lay down authoritatively as a guide, direction, or rule of action.
verb
0
0
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
0
1
To set down as a rule, law, or direction.

Prescribed the terms of the surrender.

verb
0
1
Advertisement
To order the use of (a medicine or other treatment).
verb
0
1
To establish rules, laws, or directions.
verb
0
1
To invalidate or outlaw by negative prescription.
verb
0
1

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.

  • 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.

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

  • Power was also given to prescribe uniform systems of accounts for all classes of carriers, and to employ special examiners to inspect the books and accounts.

  • 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.

More sentences →

Related articles

Also Mentioned In

Words near prescribe in the Dictionary