different between rule vs prescription

English

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /?u?l/, [?u??]
• Rhymes: -u?l

Etymology 1

From Middle English reule, rewle, rule, borrowed from Old French riule, reule, itself an early semi-learned borrowing from Latin regula (“straight stick, bar, ruler, pattern”), from reg? (“to keep straight, direct, govern, rule”); see regent.

Noun

rule (countable and uncountable, plural rules)

1. A regulation, law, guideline.
   • a. 1694, John Tillotson, Of The Obligations of Christians to a Holy Life

     We profess to have embraced a religion which contains the most exact rules for the government of our lives.
2. A regulating principle.
   • c. 1604, William Shakespeare, All's well that ends well, Act I, scene I

     There's little can be said in 't; 'Tis against the rule of nature.

3. The act of ruling; administration of law; government; empire; authority; control.
4. A normal condition or state of affairs.

   My rule is to rise at six o'clock.

5. (obsolete) Conduct; behaviour.
6. (law) An order regulating the practice of the courts, or an order made between parties to an action or a suit.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Wharton to this entry?)

7. (mathematics) A determinate method prescribed for performing any operation and producing a certain result.

   a rule for extracting the cube root

8. A ruler; device for measuring, a straightedge, a measure.
   • a. 1716, Robert South, Sermons

     As we may observe in the Works of Art, a Judicious Artist will indeed use his Eye, but he will trust only to his Rule.

9. A straight line (continuous mark, as made by a pen or the like), especially one lying across a paper as a guide for writing.
10. (printing, dated) A thin plate of brass or other metal, of the same height as the type, and used for printing lines, as between columns on the same page, or in tabular work.

Derived terms

Related terms

• regulate
• regent
• regular

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English rulen, borrowed from Old French riuler, from Latin regul?re (“to regulate, rule”), from regula (“a rule”); see regular and regulate.

Verb

rule (third-person singular simple present rules, present participle ruling, simple past and past participle ruled)

1. (transitive) To regulate, be in charge of, make decisions for, reign over.
2. (slang, intransitive) To excel.

3. (intransitive) To decide judicially.
4. (transitive) To establish or settle by, or as by, a rule; to fix by universal or general consent, or by common practice.
   • 1687, Francis Atterbury, An Answer to some Considerations, the Spirit of Martin Luther and the Original of the Reformation

     That's a ruled case with the school-men.

5. (transitive) To mark (paper or the like) with rules (lines).

Synonyms

• (to excel): rock (also slang)

Antonyms

• (to excel): suck (vulgar slang)

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 3

Related to revel.

Noun

rule

1. (obsolete) Revelry.

Verb

rule (third-person singular simple present rules, present participle ruling, simple past and past participle ruled)

1. (obsolete, intransitive) To revel.

Further reading

• rule in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• rule in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• ReLU, Ruel, lure

Spanish

Verb

rule

1. Formal second-person singular (usted) imperative form of rular.
2. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of rular.
3. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of rular.
4. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present subjunctive form of rular.

English

Alternative forms

• præscription (archaic)

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French, from Old French prescripcion, from Latin praescriptio.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /p???sk??p??n/, (proscribed) /p??sk??p??n/

Noun

prescription (countable and uncountable, plural prescriptions)

1. (law)
   1. The act of prescribing a rule, law, etc..
      • "Jurisdiction to prescribe" is a state's authority to make its laws applicable to certain persons or activities. -- Richard G. Alexander, Iran and Libya Sanctions Act of 1996: Congress exceeds its jurisdiction to prescribe law. Washington and Lee Law Review, 1997.
   2. Also called extinctive prescription or liberative prescription. A time period within which a right must be exercised, otherwise it will be extinguished.
   3. Also called acquisitive prescription. A time period after which a person who has, in the role of an owner, uninterruptedly, peacefully, and publicly possessed another's property acquires the property. The described process is known as acquisition by prescription and adverse possession.
2. (medicine, pharmacy, pharmacology) A written order, as by a physician or nurse practitioner, for the administration of a medicine or other intervention. See also scrip.
   • The surgeon wrote a prescription for a pain killer and physical therapy.
3. (medicine) The prescription medicine or intervention so prescribed.
   • The pharmacist gave her a bottle containing her prescription.
4. (ophthalmology) The formal description of the lens geometry needed for spectacles, etc..
   • The optician followed the optometrist's prescription for her new eyeglasses.
5. (linguistics) The act or practice of laying down norms of language usage, as opposed to description, i.e. recording and describing actual usage.
6. (linguistics) An instance of a prescriptive pronouncement.
7. A plan or procedure to obtain a given end result; a recipe.
   • "Early to bed and early to rise" is a prescription for a healthy lifestyle.
8. (obsolete) Circumscription; restraint; limitation.
   • 1853, Charles Dickens, Bleak House, ch 2:

     There is an air of prescription about him which is always agreeable to Sir Leicester; he receives it as a kind of tribute. ... It expresses, as it were, the steward of the legal mysteries, the butler of the legal cellar, of the Dedlocks.

Usage notes

• Do not confuse with proscription.

Synonyms

• forescript
• (medicine): ?, Rx
• (a plan or procedure): recipe

Related terms

• prescribe

Derived terms

Translations

Adjective

prescription (not comparable)

1. (of a drug, etc.) only available with a physician or nurse practitioner's written prescription

   Many powerful pain killers are prescription drugs in the U.S.

Translations

See also

• prescriptivism

French

Etymology

From Old French prescripcion, borrowed from Latin praescriptio, praescriptionem.

Pronunciation

Noun

prescription f (plural prescriptions)

1. prescription (all senses)

Norman

Etymology

From Old French prescripcion, borrowed from Latin praescriptio, praescriptionem.

Noun

prescription f (plural prescriptions)

1. (Jersey) prescription