3. (Law)
Defn: A prescribing for title; the claim of title to a thing by virtue 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.
Note: 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.
PRESCRIPTIVE Pre*scrip"tive, a. Etym: [L. praescriptivus of a demurrer or legal exception.] (Law)
Defn: 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.
PRESCRIPTIVELY
Pre*scrip"tive*ly, adv.
Defn: By prescription.
PRESCUTUM
Pre*scu"tum, n.; pl. Prescuta (. Etym: [NL. See Præ-, and Scutum.]
(Zoöl.)
Defn: 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.
PRESEANCE
Pre"se*ance, n. Etym: [F. préséance. See Preside.]