a toxic semisynthetic antibiotic, C18H33ClN2O5S, used to treat serious infections chiefly due to various anaerobic bacteria, esp. Bacteroides.
Origin: 1965–70; by contr. and rearrangement of chloro-deoxylincomycin an alternate name, equiv. to chloro-2+ deoxy-+ lincomycin an antibiotic produced by Streptomyces lincolnensis;see -mycin