prescription

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A written order from a doctor for a medicine or treatment.

   The surgeon had written thousands of prescriptions for painkillers.

2. 2
   noun

   A medicine that you can only get with a doctor's written order.

   I need you to pick up grandma's prescriptions on your way home.

3. 3
   noun

   A suggested plan or method for dealing with a problem.

   Early to bed and early to rise is a prescription for good health.

Borrowed from Middle French, from Old French prescripcion, from Latin praescriptio (“preface; pretext; something written ahead of time”), from prae- (“pre-, before”) + scribere (“to write”) + -tio (“-tion, forming nouns”). Equivalent to prescribe + -tion.

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