counter

Multiple Entries:
  counter    counter-  

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
counter1

▶noun

• 1 a long flat-topped fitment across which business is conducted in a shop or food and drinks are served.

  ■ N. Amer. a worktop.

• 2 a small disc used in board games for keeping the score or as a place marker.

  ■ a token representing a coin.

• 3 a factor used to give one party an advantage in negotiations.

• 4 a person or thing that counts something.

  ■ Physics an apparatus used for counting individual ionizing particles or events.

– phrases
over the counter by ordinary retail purchase, with no need for a prescription or licence.

■ (of share transactions) taking place outside the stock exchange system.

under the counter (or table) (with reference to goods bought or sold) surreptitiously and illegally.

– origin ME (in sense 2): from OFr. conteor, from med. L. computatorium, from L. computare (see compute).

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
counter2

▶verb

• 1 speak or act in opposition or response to.

• 2 Boxing give a return blow while parrying.

▶adverb (counter to) in the opposite direction to or in conflict with. ▶adjective responding to something of the same kind, especially in opposition: argument and counter argument. ▶noun

• 1 an act or speech which counters something else.

• 2 Boxing a counterpunch.

• 3 the curved part of the stern of a ship projecting aft above the waterline.

• 4 Printing the white space enclosed by a letter such as O or c.

– origin ME: from OFr. contre, from L. contra ‘against’.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
counter3

▶noun the back part of a shoe or boot, enclosing the heel.

– origin C19: abbrev. of counterfort ‘buttress’, from Fr. contrefort.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
counter-/ˈkaʊntə(r)/

▶prefix denoting opposition, retaliation, or rivalry: counter-attack.

■ denoting movement or effect in the opposite direction: counterpoise.

■ denoting correspondence, duplication, or substitution: counterpart.

– origin from Anglo-Norman Fr. countre-, OFr. contre, from L. contra ‘against’.