insidious vs underhanded

insidious

adj
  • Intending to entrap; alluring but harmful. 

  • Hansel and Gretel were lured by the witch’s insidious gingerbread house. 

  • Treacherous. 

  • Producing harm in a stealthy, often gradual, manner. 

  • The battle was lost due to the actions of insidious defectors. 

underhanded

adj
  • Secret; surreptitious. 

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

  • Sly, dishonest, corrupt, cheating. 

  • Insincere; sarcastic. 

  • An underhanded compliment is actually criticism. 

  • His underhanded trick backfired and he was disqualified. 

  • Understaffed. 

noun
  • Devious people, collectively. 

adv
  • In an underhanded manner. 

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