underhanded

Etymology

under- + handed

adj

1. Done by moving the hand (and arm) from below.
   Golf is an underhanded game, because we must swing the club in an underhanded motion in order to play the ball off the ground. 2011, Edward A Tischler, The Way Of The Golfer: Searching For New Horizons, page 25
2. Sly, dishonest, corrupt, cheating.
   They were actually underhanded threats to call off the lawsuit and then all insurance agents in the hospital district would get a dividend for the premiums paid. 2007, Dewey Anderson, When Satan Came to Moose Lake, page 118
   Was the federal government being underhanded and hypocritical in officially praising the merits of federalism, but in missing no opportunity to promote Canadian nationalism? 2009, Alain-G. Gagnon, Contemporary Canadian Federalism
   The pap phoned and we told him that Kirschner probably peddled them himself and now was accusing you of acting underhanded so he did not have out to pay out any more dough. 2010, Al Walentis, Polly Kahl, The Secret World of Jon and Kate, page 152
   There were underhanded ploys that were effective but were deplored by the hospital administration. 2014, Carl Douglass, The Long Climb
   His underhanded trick backfired and he was disqualified.
3. Insincere; sarcastic.
   Of course, sometimes compliments just aren't really compliments. Underhanded compliments are, for better or worse, nothing new or unusual. 2012, Hanne Blank, The Unapologetic Fat Girl's Guide to Exercise and Other Incendiary Acts, page 56
   Poking underhanded fun at the contestants live on stage was absolutely inexcusable. 2013, Charmaine Ross, Makeover Miracle
   “Have you seen my film?” He's asking about Election, his deliriously sardonic and underhanded satire of politics and high school culture that follows trepidatious government teacher (Matthew Broderick) through increasingly bizarre attempts to sideline a senior's fanatical student body presidential campaign. 2014, Julie Levinson, Alexander Payne: Interviews
   An underhanded compliment is actually criticism.
4. Secret; surreptitious.
   And, although the mystery of an unsigned note rather thrilled her, it seemed underhanded. And June hated underhanded things. 1903, Arthur Wellington Brayley, Arthur Wilson Tarbell, Joe Mitchell Chapple, National Magazine - Volume 19, page 493
   A general agreement should be made among the nations, that henceforth, all underhanded diplomatic agreements be abolished, and that complete publicity be observed in discussing and transacting international affairs. 1918, Cambrian ... Published in the Interest of the Welsh People and Their Descendants in the United States Volume 38
   He moved in closer, covertly noticing Vienna's underhanded peek. 2011, Celine Flux, Sit-Ups and Supersex, page 289
5. Understaffed.
   Between 9.30, when the first shot was fired, and 11.45 a.m., the enemy, well aware of his vast superiority in men — the ' Intrepid,' being, as was usual with the Company's cruisers, underhanded — made two attempts to run her on board and throw an overpowering force on the brig's decks. 1877, Charles Rathbone Low, History of the Indian Navy: (1613-1863), page 209
   Jude and me can make out to work the boat and get a livin', but we're too underhanded for a big job. 2008, H. De Vere Stacpoole, Satan: a Story of the Sea King's Country, page 51
   The government believed that most plantations in St. Vincent were “underhanded” and the phenomenon of runaways, or marronage, only exacerbated the problem. 2012, Christopher Taylor, The Black Carib Wars: Freedom, Survival, and the Making of the Garifuna, page 1617033111

adv

1. In an underhanded manner.
   Bonino required each of us to shoot our free throws underhanded. 2009, Patrick M. Sheridan, How Come Nothing Ever Kills Granddad?
   The 3fz one-hand-only shooting mechanism allows players to shoot the basketball up-handed by pronating palm (down) and uplifting the arm, as well as underhanded by supinating palm (up) and low-hand Unishots. 2011, Xiaoxing Chen, Three-Finger Zen: A Basketball Revolution, page 54

verb

1. simple past and past participle of underhand

noun

1. Devious people, collectively.
   We have fallen to the underhanded and label it a greater means. 2002, Anthony D. Darden, The Mind of Mafia Work, page 91
   The kind of kho'los that comes from unfair dealings, culturally unacceptable practices that bring rewards to the underhanded can, on Odysseus's (and Agamemnon's) terms, be set aside. 2005, Thomas R. Walsh, Fighting Words and Feuding Words: Anger and the Homeric Poems
   But this is not what is decisive, as it also applies to the distrustful, the underhanded, and the “deranged." 2010, Martin Heidegger, Being and Truth, page 87