| 释义 |
▪ I. prescribe, v.|prɪˈskraɪb|
Also 7 præ-.
[ad. L. præscrībĕre to write before, to appoint or direct in writing; in law, to bring an exception against, demur to, etc.; f. præ, pre- A + scrībĕre to write.]
I.
†1.
a. trans. To write first or beforehand; also, to write with foreknowledge; to predict in writing; to describe beforehand. Obs.
1545Leland New Year's Gift (1549) D iij, There hath bene to the nombre of a full hundreth or mo, that..hath..prescribed the actes of your moste noble predecessours. 1570Dee Math. Pref. d ij, So to Paint, and prescribe the Sunnes Motion, to the breadth of a heare. 1612Brinsley Lud. Lit. (1627) To Rdr., For the manner of proceeding used in this worke, it is prescribed in the preface. 1651C. Cartwright Cert. Relig. i. 133 Except you rightly understand the words of Berengarius, (hee might have said of Pope Nicolas, who did prescribe them). 1653H. Whistler Upshot Inf. Baptism 102 Esaias prescribed it excellently; The wolf shall dwell with the Lamb.
†b. To inscribe on the front or forepart. Obs.
1608Chapman Byron's Conspir. Ded., (Hauing heard your approbation of these in their presentment) I could not but prescribe them with your name.
2. a. To write or lay down as a rule or direction to be followed; to appoint, ordain, direct, enjoin. Const. to or dative; with simple obj. or obj. cl.
1535Goodly Primer (1834) 204 Let us prescribe him no time, but ever submit our wills to his. 1538Cromwell in Merriman Life & Lett. (1902) II. 153 The workes of charite marcy and faithe specially prescribed and commaunded in scripture. 1551Robinson tr. More's Utop. ii. (1895) 249 What soeuer is prescribed vnto him that killeth any of the proclamed persons. 1576Fleming Panopl. Epist. 93 Reason prescribeth..that Whatsoeuer we attempt in the course of our life, blame may be auoyded. a1648Ld. Herbert Hen. VIII (1683) 227 Your master ought not to prescribe me what I am to do. 1724Swift Drapier's Lett. iv. Wks. 1761 III. 64 Wood prescribes to the news mongers in London what they are to write. 1778Johnson in Boswell 17 Apr., Verses..prescribed as an exercise. 1843Sir J. T. Coleridge in Stanley Arnold (1844) I. i. 9, I know not whether the statutes prescribe the practice. 1884tr. Lotze's Metaph. 415 Not even Religion should presume to prescribe to God the course which the world's development must have followed subsequently to its creation.
b. in ind. pass. with the person as subject.
1609B. Jonson Sil. Wom. iv. iv, So they were prescrib'd to goe to Church. 1879Browning Ned Bratts 37 And ten were prescribed the whip, and ten a brand on the cheek.
c. absol. or intr. To lay down a rule; to dictate, appoint, direct. Of a law or custom: To be of force.
1564P. Martyr's Comm. Judges 189 b, These prescribe not, when as they are manifestly vicious and euyll. But that custome prescribeth, which is neither against the woord of God, nor the law of nature, nor the common lawe. c1586C'tess Pembroke Ps. cv. vi, He rulers rules,..prescribes, and all obey. 1610Bp. Carleton Jurisd. 278 This Synode prescribed against the Pope's jurisdiction. a1716South Serm. (1727) IV. ix. 387 Nothing..being so tyrannical as Ignorance, where Time and long Possession enables it to prescribe. 1961Parthenon (Marshall Univ., W. Va.) 10 Nov. 3/3 The ‘Third Unabridged’ does not, of course, pretend to prescribe. It seeks, rather, to describe. 1978Amer. Speech LIII. 70 Conceived as a modern dictionary that describes but does not prescribe, Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language brought forth a deluge of adverse criticism and scathing reviews.
3. Med.
a. trans. To advise or order the use of (a medicine, remedy or treatment), with directions for the manner of applying it. Const. as in 2.
1581G. Pettie Guazzo's Civ. Conv. ii. (1586) 54, I prescribe for his health this medicine. 1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1658) 178 Pliny prescribeth a man which twinkleth with his eyes, and cannot look stedfastly, to wear in a chain the tongue of a Fox. 1676W. Hubbard Happiness of People 40 To prescribe to the people poysonous Drugs instead of wholsome food or physick. 1758J. S. Le Dran's Observ. Surg. (1771) 324 He was..prescribed a..Ptisan. 1806Bosanquet & Pullen New Rep. I. 196 The Defendant as apothecary made up the medicines prescribed by the Plaintiff for the patient. 1843R. J. Graves Syst. Clin. Med. ix. 97 To leech his head and prescribe tartar emetic.
b. absol. or intr. Also fig.
1598Shakes. Merry W. ii. ii. 249 Methinkes you prescribe to your selfe very preposterously. 1607― Timon v. iv. 84, I will..make each Prescribe to other, as each others Leach. 1674R. Godfrey Inj. & Ab. Physick 200 This Doctor..Prescribes, and..gives order for a Preventive Purge to be taken next morning. 1737West Let. in Gray's Poems (1775) 27 If..‘Friendship be the physic of the mind’, prescribe to me, dear Gray,..I shall be a most obedient patient. 1899Daily News 13 Mar. 7/1 His motto was that no statesman should prescribe until he was called in. Mod. The physician was asked to prescribe for him.
4. trans. To limit, restrict, restrain; to confine within bounds.
1596Drayton Leg. i. 601 Prescrib'd to one poore solitary place, Who should have progress'd all a Kingdomes space. 1688Prior Exodus iii. 14 vii, Laws to his Maker the learn'd wretch can give: Can bound that Nature, and prescribe that Will, Whose pregnant word did either ocean fill. 1726De Foe Hist. Devil ii. iii. (1840) 197 The faculties of man..are prescribed on the other hand, and cannot sally out without leave. 1919K. Routledge Mystery of Easter Island viii. 116 As both the lifeboat and the cutter were carried in the waist of the ship when we were at sea, the space available for ‘constitutionals’ was prescribed.
II. Law.
†5. trans.
a. To hold by prescription (sense 4 b).
b. To claim by prescription. Obs. rare.
1455Rolls of Parlt. V. 337/1 (Anc. Pet. 1387, P.R.O.) Not withstonding that by the olde liberte and fredome of the Comyne of this londe had, enjoyed and prescribed, fro the tyme that no mynde is, alle such persones as..beene assembled in eny parlement..ought to haue theire fredome to speke and sey in the hous of theire assemble..he was..arrested, and..led to the Toure of London. 1607Cowell Interpr. s.v. Prescription, A seruant prescribeth liberty after a yeare.
6. intr. To make a claim by prescription; to assert a prescriptive right or claim (to or for something; also with inf. or clause).
1531Dial. on Laws Eng. ii. l. 104 b, If a hole countrey prescribe to pay no tythes for corne, or hey or suche other, [shewe me] whether thou thynke that that prescripcion is good. 1544tr. Littleton's Tenures ii. xi. 42 b, A man may not prescrybe in a vyllayne in grosse without shewynge of wryttynge but in hymselfe that claymeth the vyllayne and in his auncesters whose heyre he is. Ibid. 47 b, If a lord of a manour wyl prescrybe that it hath ben accustomed within his manoure tyme out of mynde that euery tenaunt [etc.]. 1712Prideaux Direct. Ch.-wardens (ed. 4) 75 The Lord of a Manor..may prescribe to a Seat in the Body of the Church, which he and his Ancestors have immemorially used. 1766Blackstone Comm. II. xvii. 264 Formerly a man might, by the common law, have prescribed for a right which had been enjoyed by his ancestors or predecessors at any distance of time. 1817W. Selwyn Law Nisi Prius (ed. 4) II. 1119 If the party has a general common, and prescribes for common for any particular sort of cattle, this will be good. 1844Williams Real Prop. (1875) 450 A man might..prescribe that he and his ancestors had from time immemorial exercised a certain right in gross.
fig.a1619M. Fotherby Atheom. i. ix. §2 (1622) 62 Time, which prescribeth against all humane inuentions, and which chalengeth the honour of Antiquity from them. 1650Fuller Pisgah ii. xii. 260 Presuming on their former victories, that in so fortunate a place they might prescribe for conquest.
†7. intr. Of a person: To plead prescription of time (prescription 4) against an action, statute, or penalty; to cease to be liable on account of the lapse of the prescribed time. Obs.
1595Expos. Terms Law 145 b, But one may not prescribe against a statute except he haue an other statute that serueth for him. 1670Blount Law Dict. s.v. Prescription A Judge or Clerk convicted for false entring of Pleas, &c. may be Fined within two years; the two years being past, he prescribes against the punishment of the said Statute. 1672Cowell's Interpr. s.v. Prescription, Whosoever offendeth against any such Statute, and escapes unquestion'd for two years or three..may justly be said to have prescribed against that Action.
8. Sc. Law. intr. Of an action: To suffer prescription; to lapse, to become invalid or void by passage of time. Of a crime, debt, etc.: To be no longer capable of prosecution.
1617Sc. Acts Jas. VI, c. 12 All actions of warrandice..shall not præscrybe [ed. 1816 prescryve], from the date of the band..but only from the date of the distresse. 1678Sir G. Mackenzie Crim. Laws Scot. ii. xxix. §1 (1699) 276 According to the Civil Law, Crimes did prescribe in twenty years. 1751Hume Ess., Justice (1817) II. 235 Bills of exchange and promissory notes, by the laws of most countries, prescribe sooner than bonds, and mortgages. 1838W. Bell Dict. Law Scot. 773 By the act 1579, c. 82, actions of removing prescribe within three years from the term at which the tenant has been warned to remove. 1874Act 37 & 38 Vict. c. 94 §42 All inhibitions..shall prescribe on the lapse of five years from the date.
fig.1847De Quincey Sp. Mil. Nun xv. Wks. 1853 III. 37 The grasp of the church never relaxed, never ‘prescribed’, unless freely and by choice.
Hence preˈscribing vbl. n.; † preˈscribement, prescription, prescribing. Obs. rare—1.
1542N. Udall Erasmus's Apophthegmes sig. N5v, Signifying, not to bee any prescribyng to the Romaines, how ferre thei ought to extend their empier. 1563Foxe A. & M. 26/2 The matter being decised betwixt them after the popes own prescribement, themperour taketh his iourny to Papia. 1618M. Baret Horsemanship i. 65 By practise it may bee better perceiued then by prescribing. a1704T. Brown Sat. on Quack Wks. 1730 I. 63 Whole nations might be killed by thy prescribing.
▪ II. prescribe
formerly frequent for proscribe. |