prescription
n. countablen. an official piece of paper from a doctor that says which medicine you need. You take it to a pharmacy to get your treatment.
n. a written instruction from a medical practitioner that authorises a patient to be provided with a specific medicine or treatment.
The doctor wrote me a prescription for antibiotics.
You must present a valid prescription at the pharmacy before they can dispense the required medication.
While over-the-counter remedies are available for minor ailments, more potent drugs require a formal prescription to ensure they are administered under professional supervision.
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.
Commonly used with the verbs 'write', 'issue', or 'fill'.
a recipe for medicinea prescription for medicineIn many languages, the word for 'recipe' and 'prescription' is the same; in English, 'recipe' is only for cooking.