underhanded vs wry

underhanded

adj
  • Insincere; sarcastic. 

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

  • Sly, dishonest, corrupt, cheating. 

  • An underhanded compliment is actually criticism. 

  • Secret; surreptitious. 

  • His underhanded trick backfired and he was disqualified. 

  • Understaffed. 

noun
  • Devious people, collectively. 

adv
  • In an underhanded manner. 

wry

adj
  • Dryly humorous; sardonic or bitterly ironic. 

  • Deviating from the right direction; misdirected; out of place. 

  • Turned away, contorted (of the face or body). 

  • Twisted, bent, crooked. 

verb
  • To twist or contort (the body, face, etc.). 

noun
  • Distortion. 

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