under the counter
See also: under-the-counter
English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Adverb
[edit]under the counter (comparative more under the counter, superlative most under the counter)
- Illicitly, against regulations, of goods kept under the serving counter in a shop to be unobtrusively passed to a customer who knows they are available for surreptitious sale (e.g. pornographic magazines in a newsagent).
- 1969 The Seven Minutes: A Novel[1] - Page 157 by Irving Wallace
- Oh, yeah, I remember, you mean about me not trying to sell from under the counter?
- 2004, James Carlos Blake, Under the Skin,[2] HarperCollins, →ISBN, page 55,
- When Prohibition became the law, they produced the stuff in greater quantity and sold it under the counter to anybody who wanted it.
- 2017, Jonathan Meades, “Sanguette”, in The Plagiarist in the Kitchen: A Lifetime’s Culinary Thefts, London: Unbound, →ISBN, page 109:
- Sanguette used to be widely available in France, specifically in what was Occitania, i.e. roughly the southernmost third of the country. Today, because stringent laws govern the slaughter of animals, it is only to be found under the counter in country markets.
- 1969 The Seven Minutes: A Novel[1] - Page 157 by Irving Wallace
Translations
[edit]illicitly
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Adjective
[edit]under the counter (comparative more under the counter, superlative most under the counter)
- (British, Ireland, colloquial) In an underhand way, sneakily; unofficially, particularly with regard to payment or tax avoidance.
- 2003 September 19, “Lawlor questioned at Planning probe”, in RTE News[3]:
- This morning he said he could not remember exactly where or how the invoice was written. It was used to cover up an under the counter payment from the sale of his land in Lucan.
Translations
[edit]unofficially
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