antibiotic, a. (n.)
(ˌæntɪbaɪˈɒtɪk)
[f. anti- 3 + Gr. βιωτικ-ός fit for life.]
1. rare. Opposed to a belief in the presence or possibility of life.
| 1860 Maury Phys. Geog. Sea xiv. 604, I incline to the antibiotic hypothesis. 1877 W. Thomson Voy. Challenger I. i. 4 The antibiotic prejudice. |
2. [ad. F. antibiotique (P. Vuillemin 1890, in Compt. Rend. Assoc. Fran{cced}. Avanc. Sci. 1889 ii. 526).] Injurious to or destructive of living matter, esp. micro-organisms. So ˌantibiˈotically adv.
| 1894 Phil. Trans. B. CLXXXV. 312 Production of a bactericidal, or at least antibiotic, substance. 1942 S. A. Waksman et al. in Soil Science LIV. 295 The most active antagonistic cultures were studied in detail, and several antibiotic substances were isolated. 1945 S. A. Waksman Microbial Antagonisms & Antibiotic Substances 271 Antibiotic, inhibiting the growth or the metabolic activities of bacteria and other microorganisms by a chemical substance of microbial origin. 1946 Nature 6 July 24/2 Antibiotically active cell-free watery extracts could be prepared from cultures on Dorset's egg medium. |
3. Hence as n., an antibiotic substance: one of a class of substances produced by living organisms and capable of destroying or inhibiting the growth of micro-organisms; spec. any of these substances used for therapeutic purposes. Also used of synthetic organic compounds having similar properties.
| 1944 Lancet 18 Mar. 375/2 (title) The Mould Antibiotics. 1949 H. W. Florey et al. Antibiotics II. xlvii. 1438 The antibiotics comprise substances with diverse chemical structures and biological activities. They range in their action from those which inhibit the growth of certain strains of bacteria in a highly selective manner to those which are relatively toxic to all living cells. 1958 Listener 16 Oct. 620/1 The discovery of ‘interferon’, a sort of virus antibiotic. |
Also in Comb.
| 1956 Nature 25 Feb. 368/1 The search for new antibiotic-producing organisms, particularly streptomyces, from Malayan soil continues. 1961 Times 17 Mar. 5/4 Of the antibiotic-resistant staphylococci..90 per cent were isolated from infants born in the hospital. |