Pre*scrip"tion (-shŭn), n. [F. prescription, L.
praescriptio, an inscription, preface, precept, demurrer, prescription (in sense 3), fr. praescribere. See Prescribe.]
1. The act of prescribing, directing, or dictating; direction; precept; also, that which is
prescribed.
2. (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.
3. (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. Bacon.
That profound reverence for law and
prescription which has long been characteristic of
Englishmen.
Macaulay. &fist; Prescription
differs from custom,
which is a local usage, while prescription
is personal, annexed to the person
only. Prescription only
extends to incorporeal
rights, such as aright of way, or of common. What the law gives
of common rights is not the subject of prescription. Blackstone. Cruise. Kent. In Scotch law, prescription is employed
in the sense in which limitation is used in England and America, namely, to express that operation of the lapse
of time by which obligations are extinguished
or title protected. Sir T. Craig.
Erskine.
Hear it pronounced