To lay down authoritatively as a guide, direction, or rule of action; to impose as a peremptory order; to dictate; to appoint; to direct. Prescribe not us our duties. Shak. Let streams prescribe their fountains where to run. Dryden.
To direct, as a remedy to be used by a patient; as, the doctor prescribed quinine.
To give directions; to dictate. A forwardness to prescribe to their opinions. Locke.
To influence by long use [Obs.] Sir T. Browne.
To write or to give medical directions; to indicate remedies; as, to prescribe for a patient in a fever.
To claim by prescription; to claim a title to a thing on the ground of immemorial use and enjoyment, that is, by a custom having the force of law.
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