counter

COUNTER, noun [from count.] 1. A false piece of money or stamped metal, used as means of reckoning; any thing used to keep an account or reckoning, as in games. 2. Money, in contempt. 3. A table or board on which money is counted; a table on which goods in a shop are laid for examination by purchasers. In lieu of this, we sometimes see written the French comptoir, from compter, computo; but counter is the genuine orthography. 4. The name of certain prisons in London. 5. One that counts or reckons; also, an auditor. 6. Encounter. [Not used.] 7. In ships, an arch or vault, whose upper part is terminated by the bottom of the stern. The upper or second counter is above the former, but not vaulted. COUNTER of a horse, that part of a horses forehand which lies between the shoulder and under the neck. COUNTER, adverb [Latin] 1. Contrary; in opposition; in an opposite direction; used chiefly with run or go; as, to run counter to the rules of virtue; he went counter to his own interest. 2. The wrong way; contrary to the right course. 3. Contrariwise; in a contrary manner. 4. The face, or at the face. [Not used.] This word is prefixed to many others, chiefly verbs and nouns, expressing opposition.