aboveground

[uh-buhv-ground]

adjective

situated on or above the ground.
not secret or hidden; in the open: the aboveground activities of the country's left-wing faction.

Origin of aboveground

First recorded in 1875–80; above + ground¹

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

The body lay in an aboveground marble sarcophagus guarded by no groundskeepers or watchmen, just one lonely padlock.
Invasion of the Celebrity Body Snatchers, From Charlie Chaplin to Casey Kasem
Melissa Leon
July 19, 2014
The noose around his neck is attached, aboveground, to a flying white bat.
The Twisted Mind of Marcel Dzama
Sasha Watson
March 11, 2010

There was a chain-link gate at the side of the house, and in the back an aboveground pool.
Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town
Cory Doctorow
Aboveground his crudities of manner might be repellent; here he was in his native element, shrewd, practical and zealous.
Ainslee's magazine, Volume 16, No. 3, October, 1905
Various
The underground railroad preceded the aboveground railroad in the history of the great American conflict.
The Creed of the Old South 1865-1915
Basil L. Gildersleeve
But he negotiated it successfully, and in another moment he was aboveground and free.
The Master Mystery
Arthur B. Reeve and John W. Grey