public vs underhanded

public

noun
  • The people in general, regardless of membership of any particular group. 

  • A particular group or demographic to be targeted. 

adj
  • Able to be seen or known by everyone; open to general view, happening without concealment. 

  • Officially representing the community; carried out or funded by the state on behalf of the community. 

  • Traded publicly via a stock market. 

  • Open to all members of a community; especially, provided by national or local authorities and supported by money from taxes. 

  • Pertaining to the people as a whole (as opposed to a private group); concerning the whole country, community etc. 

  • Accessible to the program in general, not only to the class or any subclasses. 

underhanded

adv
  • In an underhanded manner. 

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

  • Sly, dishonest, corrupt, cheating. 

  • Insincere; sarcastic. 

  • An underhanded compliment is actually criticism. 

  • Secret; surreptitious. 

  • His underhanded trick backfired and he was disqualified. 

  • Understaffed. 

noun
  • Devious people, collectively. 

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