Underhand

//ˈʌn.də(ɹ)ˌ(h)ænd// adj, adv, noun, verb

adj, adv, noun, verb ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The lower of two hands, the hand under the work.

    "Your underhand should be entirely under the quilt."

Verb
  1. 1
    To toss or lob with an underhand movement. transitive

    "Couture made straight for the refrigerator and returned with cold beer, underhanding them in turn to each of the team members, Sergeant Thi included."

  2. 2
    To trick, deceive or gull. transitive

    "The time has arrived when monkeying with the public must cease, when lying and underhanding your competitor in the baking business must be banished from the plan of business development."

  3. 3
    To excavate downward in successive steps or horizontal slices while positioned above on unbroken ore.

    "About one-half the body has been mined by underhanding into mill holes; but with the adoption of the water drill, shrinkage stoping is being largely used and the larger stopes are mined as at Levack."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Secret; clandestine.
  2. 2
    Dishonest and sneaky; done in a secret or sly manner. broadly
  3. 3
    Thrown (etc.) with the hand brought forward and up from below.
Adjective
  1. 1
    marked by deception wordnet
  2. 2
    with hand brought forward and up from below shoulder level wordnet
Adverb
  1. 1
    With an underhand movement.
  2. 2
    In a sly, sneaky or secret manner.
Adverb
  1. 1
    with the hand swung below shoulder level wordnet
  2. 2
    slyly and secretly wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
underhandedunderarmunderhandedlyamoralartfulartful

Example

More examples

"In softball, the ball is pitched underhand."

Etymology

From under + hand.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.