insulting vs underhanded

insulting

adj
  • Containing insult, or having the intention of insulting. 

noun
  • The act of giving insult. 

underhanded

adj
  • An underhanded compliment is actually criticism. 

  • Done by moving the hand (and arm) from below. 

  • Sly, dishonest, corrupt, cheating. 

  • Insincere; sarcastic. 

  • Secret; surreptitious. 

  • His underhanded trick backfired and he was disqualified. 

  • Understaffed. 

noun
  • Devious people, collectively. 

adv
  • In an underhanded manner. 

How often have the words insulting and underhanded occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )