| 释义 |
underˈhanded, adv. and a.
[f. prec.]
A. adv.
1. = underhand adv. 3.
1825Cobbett Rur. Rides (1830) I. 342 The Quakers have been urging it on, underhanded. 1857Dickens Dorrit ii. xx, You are reproaching me, under-handed, with having nobody but you to look to.
2. (Cf. underhand a. 1 c.)
c1822Laws of Cricket in Q. Rev. (1884) CLVIII. 471 The ball must be delivered underhanded, not thrown or jerked.
B. adj. (In attributive use ˈunderˌhanded.)
1. = underhand a. 2.
1806[implied in underhandedly adv.]. 1853Dickens Bleak Ho. xxxvii, Under-handed charges against John Jarndyce. 1865― Mut. Fr. i. ix, Dark deep underhanded plotting. 1884Harper's Mag. Feb. 395/2 Life seemed to go on in an underhanded, secret way.
b. = underhand a. 2 b.
1865Dickens Mut. Fr. ii. vii, That's an underhanded mind, Sir. 1899F. H. Burnett Willoughby Claim vi, You confounded, sneaking, underhanded little thief!
2. Short of ‘hands’; undermanned.
1834Coleridge Table-t. 4 Jan., If that country could be brought to maintain a million more of inhabitants, Norway might defy the world:..but it is much under-handed now. 1858Froude Hist. Eng. III. 143 He was still underhanded, and entreated assistance. 1874S. Wilberforce Ess. II. 97 The clergy are utterly underhanded.
3. dial. Undersized.
1856P. Thompson Hist. Boston 728 A little, underhanded fellow. 1868–in Yks. and Cumb. glossaries.
4. Placed or printed below.
1884American VIII. 347 Many of the caricatures were originally published in connection with the ‘poem’, which is underhanded.
Hence ˌunderˈhandedly adv.; -ˈhandedness.
1806Feltham's Resolves i. 106 To applaud virtue would procure us far more honour, than underhandedly seeking to disparage her. 1884Tennyson Becket Prol., All left-handedness and under-handedness. 1886Athenæum 11 Sept. 335/1 A great deal of indirectness—not to say underhandedness. 1891H. C. Halliday Someone must Suffer III. xii. 213 You had acted underhandedly and deceived him. |