Definition

1. Noun:

   • A written order from a doctor or dentist for the preparation and use of a medicine: A legal document that authorizes a pharmacist to dispense a specific medication to a named patient.
   • Written instructions from an eye doctor for the lenses in eyeglasses or contact lenses: A specification for corrective lenses.
   • A medicine that can only be obtained with a doctor's written order: A drug that is not available over-the-counter.
   • Authoritative instruction or recommendation; a prescribed rule or course of action: A formula or plan, often based on expertise, for achieving a particular result.

2. Adjective:

   • Available only with a doctor's written order: Describing a drug that legally requires a prescription to be dispensed.

Usage Examples

• Noun:

  • The doctor wrote a prescription for antibiotics.
  • I took my eyeglass prescription to the optician.
  • That medication is a prescription, so you cannot buy it without a doctor's note.
  • Her prescription for a happy life involves gratitude and exercise.

• Adjective:

  • Opioids are prescription drugs with a high potential for abuse.

Advanced Usage

• "To fill a prescription": To take a prescription to a pharmacy and obtain the medicine.
  • I need to fill my prescription on the way home.
• "By prescription only": A phrase indicating that a drug is legally restricted and requires a doctor's authorization.
  • This powerful painkiller is available by prescription only.

Variants and Related Words

• Prescribe (verb): To authorize or recommend the use of a medicine or course of action.
  • The doctor will prescribe the appropriate treatment.
• Prescriptive (adjective): Relating to the imposition or enforcement of a rule or method.
  • The guide offers prescriptive advice on grammar.

Synonyms

• Order (as in a doctor's order).
• Script (informal term for a prescription).
• Formula (as in a recommended method).
• Directive (an official instruction).

Related Phrases

• Prescription drug/medication: The full term for a medicine requiring a prescription.
• Prescription pad: The pad of paper on which doctors write prescriptions.
• Out of prescription: Needing a new prescription because the old one has expired or run out.
  • My inhaler is out of prescription; I need to see my doctor.

Idioms

• A prescription for disaster/disaster (idiom): A plan or situation that is very likely to lead to a bad outcome.
  • Ignoring the safety warnings is a prescription for disaster.

Adjective

1. available only with a doctor's written prescription
   • a prescription drug

Noun

1. 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
2. written instructions for an optician on the lenses for a given person
3. 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
4. directions prescribed beforehand; the action of prescribing authoritative rules or directions
   • I tried to follow her prescription for success