shady vs underhanded

shady

adj
  • Not trustworthy; disreputable. 

  • Abounding in shades. 

  • Mean, cruel. 

  • Overspread with shade; sheltered from the glare of light or sultry heat. 

  • Causing shade. 

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. 

adv
  • In an underhanded manner. 

noun
  • Devious people, collectively. 

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