Pre*scrip`ti*bil"i*ty (?), n. The quality or state of being
prescriptible. Story.
Pre*scrip"ti*ble (pr*skrp"t*b'l), a. [Cf. F. prescriptible.] Depending
on, or derived from, prescription; proper to be prescribed. Grafton.
Pre*scrip"tion (-shn), 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.
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.
Pre*scrip"tive (?), a. [L. praescriptivus of a demurrer or legal
exception.] (Law) Consisting in, or acquired by, immemorial or
long-continued use and enjoyment; as, a prescriptive right of title;
pleading the continuance and authority of long custom.
The right to be drowsy in protracted toil has become prescriptive.
J. M. Mason.
Pre*scrip"tive*ly, adv. By prescription.
||Pre*scu"tum (?), n.; pl. Prescuta (&?;). [NL. See PrÊ-, and Scutum.]
||(Zoˆl.) The first of the four pieces composing the dorsal part, or
||tergum, of a thoracic segment of an insect. It is usually small and
||inconspicuous.
Pre"se*ance (?), n. [F. prÈsÈance. See Preside.] Priority of place in
sitting.[Obs.] Carew.
Pre`se*lect" (?), v. t. To select beforehand.
Pres"ence (?), n. [F. prÈsence, L. praesentia. See Present.] 1. The
state of being present, or of being within sight or call, or at hand;
-- opposed to absence.
2. The place in which one is present; the part of space within one's
ken, call, influence, etc.; neighborhood without the intervention of
anything that forbids intercourse.
Wrath shell be no more Thenceforth, but in thy presence joy entire.
Milton.
3. Specifically, neighborhood to the person of one of superior of
exalted rank; also, presence chamber.
In such a presence here to plead my thoughts.
Shak.
An't please your grace, the two great cardinals. Wait in the
presence.
Shak.
4. The whole of the personal qualities of an individual; person;
personality; especially, the person of a superior, as a sovereign.
The Sovran Presence thus replied.
Milton.
5. An assembly, especially of person of rank or nobility; noble
company.
Odmar, of all this presence does contain, Give her your wreath whom
you esteem most fair.
Dryden.
6. Port, mien; air; personal appearence. "Rather dignity of presence
than beauty of aspect." Bacon.
A graceful presence bespeaks acceptance.
Collier.
Presence chamber, or Presence room, the room in which a great personage
receives company. Addison. " Chambers of presence." Bacon. -- Presence
of mind, that state of the mind in which all its faculties are alert,
prompt, and acting harmoniously in obedience to the will, enabling one
to reach, as it were spontaneously or by intuition, just conclusions in
sudden emergencies.
Pre`sen*sa"tion (?), n. Previous sensation, notion, or idea. [Obs.] Dr.
H. More.
Pre*sen"sion (?), n. [L. praesensio, fr. praesentire to perceive
beforehand. See Presentient.] Previous perception. [Obs.] Sir T.
Browne.
Pres"ent (?), a. [F. prÈsent, L. praesens,-entis, that is before one,
in sight or at hand, p. p. of praeesse to be before; prae before + esse
to be. See Essence.]
1. Being at hand, within reach or call, within certain contemplated
limits; -- opposed to absent.
These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you.
John xiv. 25.
2. Now existing, or in process; begun but not ended; now in view, or
under consideration; being at this time; not past or future; as, the
present session of Congress; the present state of affairs; the present
instance.