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💊 To order medicine 📜 To set rules 👍 To recommend
to prescribe

to prescribe

41 3.7
Recommend a helpful action to make things better
  • verb
  • /prɪˈskraɪb/
: recomendar
  • I'm prescribing... a method of therapy... which I have found extremely successful.
  • prescribe a remedy

And so I do prescribe going to the park.

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Examples

  • I prescribe a little sleep and, of course, some exercise.

    A Farewell to Arms (1957)

  • Both of them always prescribe exercise as part of the treatment plan for anybody that they are treating when it comes to ADD.

  • And so I do prescribe going to the park.

    Mulligan Brothers Interviews

  • Well, perhaps we can determine the cause of your heart attack and then we can prescribe a treatment.

    Devil's Revenge (2019)

  • It's called healthcare, a system where doctors can prescribe solutions to improve health, not just manage disease.

  • A medical researcher writes an article, saying: "To treat this disease, you should prescribe this drug."

    Inside Job (2010)

  • By the 1950s, these medicines had become the most widely prescribed of all drugs.

    Academic text (1996)

  • Mr. Zuckerman, I've been studying your problem, and I'm gonna prescribe a protective hat.

    Lovesick (1983)

  • The effect on gait of five commonly prescribed ankle-foot devices was measured.

    Academic text (1991)

  • The doctor will prescribe a specific medication to help with your symptoms.

Synonyms

to recommend that
vsto prescribe
141 3.2

Tell someone you think they should do something

is used to advise a beneficial remedy or concrete course of action
to indicate
vsto prescribe
  • Specialized
37 4.7

Be the right treatment for a particular illness or problem

is an active advice to use a remedy rather than a clinical suitability note

Antonyms

to proscribe
  • Formal
8 8.6

To forbid something by law or official rule

How Recommended

to prescribe
41 3.7
to recommend
∞ 2.1
to advise
414 2.2
to suggest
∞ 1.6

Surface Forms

prescribe infinitive
prescribed past
prescribed past participle
prescribing present participle
prescribes third person singular

Morphology

prescribe = scribe (semi-transparent) = pre + scribe

The meaning 'recommend or authorize' comes via 'writing an instruction', which is a cultural extension not directly inferable by all learners.

Etymology

Prescribe comes from the Latin parts pre- 'before' and scribere 'to write', so it originally meant to 'write before'. A helpful way to remember the general sense 'recommend a course of action' is to think of someone writing a short prescription or plan for you before you start.