Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
over-the-counter \over-the-counter\ adj.
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able to be sold legally without a doctor's prescription; -- of medicinal drugs. Contrasted with prescription.
Syn: nonprescription(prenominal).
(Finance) not quoted on a stock exchange; sold only through private negotiations between buyer and seller; -- of securities; as, over-the-counter stocks.
Wiktionary
a. 1 (context pharmacy English) Legal for sale or distribution without the requirement of a prescription (of medicine and other treatments); abbreviated as OTC. 2 (context finance English) Direct interaction between two parties without an intermediary. Thus, any market where items such as stocks or currency are bought and sold at a distance, rather than on the exchange.
WordNet
adj. purchasable without a doctor's prescription; "nonprescription drugs"; "an over-the-counter cold remedy" [syn: nonprescription(a), over-the-counter(a)] [ant: prescription(a)]
(of securities) not quoted on a stock exchange; "over-the-counter stocks" [syn: otc]
Wikipedia
Over-the-counter (OTC) or off-exchange trading is done directly between two parties, without any supervision of an exchange. It is contrasted with exchange trading, which occurs via exchanges. A stock exchange has the benefit of facilitating liquidity, mitigates all credit risk concerning the default of one party in the transaction, provides transparency, and maintains the current market price. In an OTC trade, the price is not necessarily published for the public.
OTC trading, as well as exchange trading, occurs with commodities, financial instruments (including stocks), and derivatives of such products. Products traded on the exchange must be well standardized. This means that exchanged deliverables match a narrow range of quantity, quality, and identity which is defined by the exchange and identical to all transactions of that product. This is necessary for there to be transparency in trading. The OTC market does not have this limitation. They may agree on an unusual quantity, for example. In OTC market contracts are bilateral (i.e. contract between only two parties), each party could have credit risk concerns with respect to the other party. OTC derivative market is significant in some asset classes: interest rate, foreign exchange, stocks, and commodities.
In 2008 approximately 16 percent of all U.S. stock trades were "off-exchange trading"; by April 2014 that number increased to about forty percent. Although the notional amount outstanding of OTC derivatives in late 2012 had declined 3.3% over the previous year, the volume of cleared transactions at the end of 2012 totalled US$346.4 trillion. "The Bank for International Settlements statistics on OTC derivatives markets showed that notional amounts outstanding totalled $693 trillion at the end of June 2013... The gross market value of OTC derivatives – that is, the cost of replacing all outstanding contracts at current market prices – declined between end-2012 and end-June 2013, from $25 trillion to $20 trillion."
Usage examples of "over-the-counter".
In addition, she had dextromethorphan on board, which is an antitussive found in numerous over-the-counter cough suppressants.
Some over-the-counter cough syrups contained the chemical compound pseudoephedrine, needed to make methamphetamine.
Triprolidine is the active ingredient found in Actifed and pseudoephedrine, a nasal decongestant found in many over-the-counter cold remedies.
Nyquist had all the definitions beautifully arranged: common stocks and preferred, shores and longs, puts and calls, debentures, convertibles, capital gains, special situations, closed-end versus open-end funds, secondary offerings, specialists and what they do, the over-the-counter market, the Dow-Jones averages, point-and-figure charts, and everything else.
A flat gravity knife, available in most army surplus and pawn shops would be the best type available in regular over-the-counter buying.
Medication has to be explained to the FAA unless it is some innocuous over-the-counter remedy, and the next time she goes to the flight surgeon to renew her medical certificate, she will have to list Dostinex.
The Winnebago dealer had a preexisting GI complaint, peptic ulcer disease, which, though controlled by an over-the-counter medication, gave Ebola an easy target.
Most Americans consumed quantities of over-the-counter drugs, and one in three was on some sort of prescription medicine all the time.
Could the general have overdosed on over-the-counter pain relievers until his tongue turned black and gone off the grain elevator like a stock trader during the depression?
He'd rather toss back a handful of over-the-counter stuff and a short, neat whiskey.