PRESCRIBE

order, prescribe, dictate

(verb) issue commands or orders for

prescribe

(verb) (medicine) order the use of (a treatment, medicine, etc.), usually by written prescription; “the doctor prescribed steroids for my ear trouble”

prescribe

(verb) recommend as beneficial; “my mother prescribes a good night’s sleep as the cure for all ills”

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Etymology

Verb

prescribe (third-person singular simple present prescribes, present participle prescribing, simple past and past participle prescribed)

(medicine) To order (a drug or medical device) for use by a particular patient (under licensed authority).

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

Antonyms

• proscribe

Source: Wiktionary


Pre*scribe", v. t. [imp. & p. p. Prescribed; p. pr & vb. n. Prescribing.] Etym: [L. praescribere, praescriptum; prae before + scriebe to write. See Scribe.]

1. To lay down authoritatively as a guide, direction, or rule of action; to impose as a peremptory order; to dictate; to appoint; to direct. Prescribe not us our duties. Shak. Let streams prescribe their fountains where to run. Dryden.

2. (Med.)

Definition: To direct, as a remedy to be used by a patient; as, the doctor prescribed quinine.

Syn.

– To appoint; order; command; dictate; ordain; institute; establish.

Pre*scribe", v. i.

1. To give directions; to dictate. A forwardness to prescribe to their opinions. Locke.

2. To influence by long use [Obs.] Sir T. Browne.

3. (Med.)

Definition: To write or to give medical directions; to indicate remedies; as, to prescribe for a patient in a fever.

4. (Law)

Definition: To claim by prescription; to claim a title to a thing on the ground of immemorial use and enjoyment, that is, by a custom having the force of law.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



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Word of the Day

2 April 2025

COVERT

(adjective) secret or hidden; not openly practiced or engaged in or shown or avowed; “covert actions by the CIA”; “covert funding for the rebels”


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Coffee Trivia

According to Guinness World Records, on 25 September 2016, the Birla Institute of Management Technology (India) in Uttar Pradesh, India, constructed the largest coffee cups pyramid consisting of 23,821 cups. They used paper takeaway coffee cups to build the pyramid.

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