Hypertext Webster Gateway: "prescription"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Prescription \Pre*scrip"tion\, n. [F. prescription, L.
praescriptio, an inscription, preface, precept, demurrer,
prescription (in sense 3), fr. praescribere. See
{Prescribe}.]
1. The act of prescribing, directing, or dictating;
direction; precept; also, that which is prescribed.
2. (Med.) A direction of a remedy or of remedies for a
disease, and the manner of using them; a medical recipe;
also, a prescribed remedy.
3. (Law) A prescribing for title; the claim of title to a
thing by virtue immemorial use and enjoyment; the right or
title acquired by possession had during the time and in
the manner fixed by law. --Bacon.
That profound reverence for law and prescription
which has long been characteristic of Englishmen.
--Macaulay.
Note: Prescription differs from custom, which is a local
usage, while prescription is personal, annexed to the
person only. Prescription only extends to incorporeal
rights, such as aright of way, or of common. What the
law gives of common rights is not the subject of
prescription. Blackstone. Cruise. Kent. In Scotch law,
prescription is employed in the sense in which
limitation is used in England and America, namely, to
express that operation of the lapse of time by which
obligations are extinguished or title protected. Sir T.
Craig. Erskine.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Usucaption \U`su*cap"tion\ (?; 277), n. [L. usucapere,
usucaptum, to acquire by long use; usu (ablative of usus use)
+ capere to take: cf. usucapio usucaption.] (Roman Law)
The acquisition of the title or right to property by the
uninterrupted possession of it for a certain term prescribed
by law; -- the same as {prescription} in common law.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
prescription
adj : (of medicinal drugs) available only with a doctor's written
prescription; "a prescription drug" [syn: {prescription(a)}]
[ant: {nonprescription(a)}]
n 1: directions prescribed beforehand; the action of prescribing
authoritative rules or directions; "I tried to follow
her prescription for success"
2: a drug that is available only with written instructions from
a doctor or dentist to a pharmacist; "he told the doctor
that he had been taking his prescription regularly" [syn:
{prescription drug}, {prescription medicine}, {ethical
drug}] [ant: {over-the-counter drug}, {over-the-counter
drug}]
3: written instructions for an optician on the lenses for a
given person
4: written instructions from a physician or dentist to a
druggist concerning the form and dosage of a drug to be
issued to a given patient
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