prescription

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun The action of establishing a rule, law, or direction.
• noun Something that is prescribed; a rule, law, or direction.
• noun A written order, especially by a physician, for the preparation and administration of a medicine or other treatment.
• noun A prescribed medicine or other treatment.
• noun An ophthalmologist's or optometrist's written instruction, as for the grinding of corrective lenses.
• noun Law The acquisition of an easement or of title to property by use or occupancy that exceeds the time allowed to another to recover it by statutory right.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun The act of prescribing or establishing by rules; that which is prescribed; direction; prescript.
• noun In medicine, a statement, usually written, of the medicines or remedies to be used by a patient, and the manner of using them.
• noun In law, a personal use or possession sufficiently long continued to secure to one or more persons a title or right as against others; the effect on rights of persons of the immemorial or long-continued and uninterrupted enjoyment of a thing, as a right of way or of common, by one person or class or succession of persons rather than by another or others: as, to acquire possession of a thing by prescription.
• noun Hence, more specifically— The acquisition of a right or title by such enjoyment, called sometimes positive or acquisitive prescription.
• noun The loss of a right or title by suffering another to enjoy it, or by neglecting to assert it: called sometimes negative prescription.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun The act of prescribing, directing, or dictating; direction; precept; also, that which is prescribed.
• noun (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.
• noun (Law) A prescribing for title; the claim of title to a thing by virtue of immemorial use and enjoyment; the right or title acquired by possession had during the time and in the manner fixed by law.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun law The act of prescribing a rule, law, etc..
• noun law A period of time within which a right must be exercised, unless the right is extinguished.
• noun medicine A written order, as by a physician, for the administration of a medicine or other intervention. See also scrip.
• noun medicine The prescription medicine or intervention so prescribed.
• noun ophthalmology The formal description of the lens geometry needed for spectacles, etc..
• noun A piece of advice.
• adjective of a drug, etc. only available with a physician's written prescription

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• adjective available only with a doctor's written prescription
• noun written instructions for an optician on the lenses for a given person
• noun a drug that is available only with written instructions from a doctor or dentist to a pharmacist
• noun directions prescribed beforehand; the action of prescribing authoritative rules or directions
• noun 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