Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - prescribe

(prescribes, prescribing, prescribed) 1. If a doctor prescribes medicine or treatment for you, he or she tells you what medicine or treatment to have. Our doctor diagnosed a throat infection and prescribed antibiotic and junior aspirin... She took twice the prescribed dose of sleeping tablets... The law allows doctors to prescribe contraception to the under 16s. VERB: V n, V-ed, V n to n 2. If a person or set of laws or rules prescribes an action or duty, they state that it must be carried out. (FORMAL) ...article II of the constitution, which prescribes the method of electing a president... Alliott told Singleton he was passing the sentence prescribed by law. VERB: V n, V-ed