underhand

1. 1.

   with hand brought forward and up from below shoulder level

   “an underhand pitch”

   “an underhand stroke”

   Synonymsunderhandedunderarm

   Antonymsoverhand

   sport

2. 2.

   marked by deception

   “achieved success in business only by underhand methods”

   Synonymssneakyunderhanded

   Similarcrooked

1. 1.

   slyly and secretly

   “Mean revenge, committed underhand”

   “oldline aristocratic diplomats underhandedly undermined the attempt...to align Germany with the Western democracies”

   Synonymsunderhandedly
2. 2.

   with the hand swung below shoulder level

   “throwing a ball underarm”

   Synonymsunderarm

Questions about underhand

What does underhand mean?

underhand means "with hand brought forward and up from below shoulder level". That is the primary sense; the word has 4 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in underhand?

underhand has 3 syllables: un-der-hand. The stress falls on "un".

What is another word for underhand?

Close synonyms include underhanded, underarm, sneaky, underhanded, underhandedly. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

What is the opposite of underhand?

The recorded antonyms are overhand.

Is underhand a common word?

underhand is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.