prescribe
EnglishEdit
Alternative formsEdit
- præscribe (archaic)
EtymologyEdit
Borrowed from Latin praescribere, from prae (“before”) and scribere (“to write”).
PronunciationEdit
- IPA(key): /pɹɪˈskɹaɪb/, /pɹəˈskɹaɪb/
Audio (UK) (file)
- (distinguished from proscribe) IPA(key): /ˌpɹiːˈskɹaɪb/
- Rhymes: -aɪb
- Homophone: proscribe (in some dialects)
VerbEdit
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).
- The doctor prescribed aspirin.
- To specify by writing as a required procedure or ritual; to lay down authoritatively as a guide, direction, or rule of action.
- The property meets the criteria prescribed by the regulations.
- c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act I, scene i]:
- Prescribe not us our duties.
- 1665, John Dryden, The Indian Emperour
- Let streams prescribe their fountains where to run.
Related termsEdit
Derived termsEdit
AntonymsEdit
TranslationsEdit
to order a drug or medical device
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to specify as a required procedure or ritual
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SpanishEdit
VerbEdit
prescribe
- Informal second-person singular (tú) affirmative imperative form of prescribir.
- Formal second-person singular (usted) present indicative form of prescribir.
- Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted?) present indicative form of prescribir.