Definition of "under-the-counter" in English

adjective

1. Illicit, obtained or sold furtively.

   • The village shop seemed to be a bastion of respectability but those in the know could obtain some very questionable under-the-counter material.
   • 1973, Robert Wallace Winslow, Crime in a Free Society: Selections from the President's Commission on Law Traffic and distribution of under-the-counter materials appears to be a very minor ... The total market in under-the-counter materials is estimated to be ...
   • 1988, Gordon Hawkins and Franklin E. Zimring, Pornography in a Free Society, of material classified as "under-the-counter" was being openly exhibited and openly sold.