undercounter

adjective

Alternatives: under-counter, under-the-counter

Located, belonging, or designed to be placed under the counter. Specifically: In communist countries, the so-called undercounter goods in shops were not offered to the public, but were hidden from customers by sellers who saved those items for their acquaintances, or sold them secretly in exchange for a bribe.

Examples:

She answered the door with an undercounter scarcity Teflon-coated baking dish in her hand. (Context: The apartment was flooded by an overflown toilet; the parents are now hastily scooping water from the floor with kitchenware when the doorbell rings. Source: J∙ Okram - The Mystery of the Rammed Key.)

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Julion Okram's Word Explainer is a concise dictionary of uncommon, less standard and expert words appearing in mystery thrillers and science fiction adventures. It contains little-known or fictional geographical names, scientific terms, slang, professional jargons, archaisms, dialects, neologisms, composite expressions, etc⋅. Find word definitions, alternative meanings, occasional notes about etymology and stems, and story-related contextual remarks. The entire vocabulary is searchable online. Readers wishing to go offline or have a printed reference at hand can download this full glossary as a wordbook in PDF format.