Prescriptive

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Prescriptive \Pre*scrip"tive\, a. [L. praescriptivus of a
     demurrer or legal exception.]
     1. (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.


        [1913 Webster]
  
              The right to be drowsy in protracted toil has become
              prescriptive.                         --J. M. Mason.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Of or pertaining to the doctrine that acceptable
        grammatical rules should be prescribed by authority,
        rather than be determined by common usage.
        [PJC]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  prescriptive
       adj 1: giving directives or rules; "prescriptive grammar is
              concerned with norms of or rules for correct usage"
              [syn: {normative}] [ant: {descriptive}]
       2: based on or prescribing a norm or standard; "normative
          grammar" [syn: {normative}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  131 Moby Thesaurus words for "prescriptive":
     absolute, accepted, accustomed, acknowledged, admitted,
     authoritarian, authoritative, autocratic, average, binding,
     canonical, commanding, common, commonplace, compelling, compulsory,
     conclusive, conformable, constrictive, consuetudinary,
     conventional, current, customary, decisive, decretal, decretive,
     decretory, dictated, dictating, dictatorial, didactic, directive,
     dogmatic, entailed, established, ethnocentric, everyday,
     exceptional, excluding, exclusive, exclusory, familiar, final,
     fixed, folk, formulary, generally accepted, habitual, hallowed,
     handed down, hard and fast, hard-and-fast, heroic, hoary,
     household, immemorial, imperative, imperious, imposed,
     inadmissible, instructive, insular, inveterate, irrevocable,
     jussive, legendary, long-established, long-standing, mandated,
     mandating, mandatory, must, mythological, narrow, normal,
     normative, obligating, obligatory, obtaining, of long standing,
     of the folk, official, oral, ordinary, overbearing, parochial,
     peremptory, popular, preceptive, preclusive, predominating,
     prescribed, prescript, prevailing, prevalent, preventive,
     prohibitive, received, recognized, regular, regulation, required,
     restrictive, rooted, rubric, seclusive, segregative, select,
     selective, separative, set, snobbish, standard, statutory, stock,
     time-honored, traditional, tried and true, true-blue, ultimate,
     understood, universal, unwritten, usual, venerable, vernacular,
     widespread, without appeal, wonted, worshipful, xenophobic