The word "underhanded" is used in literature to evoke a sense of deceit and moral ambiguity, often highlighting hidden motives and dishonest conduct. In Dickens’s Our Mutual Friend, for example, the term is employed to describe both actions and inherent traits—as seen when Mortimer laments something as "deplorably underhanded" [1], and when other characters reveal "unspeakable moral compensation" [2] or are depicted with "dark deep underhanded plotting" [3]. The phrase is also used simply to characterize deviousness in a character as "so mean, so underhanded" [4], and even extends to portray admissions of personal or societal shortcomings, as illustrated by Jules Verne’s playful self-admission of turning forty in an "underhanded way" [5]. Additionally, Twain and Warner use it to describe a character’s mercenary tendencies [6], while another moment in Dickens’s narrative marks a turning point when a character commits his first morally questionable act, acknowledging it as "underhanded" [7]. This variety in usage underscores the word’s capacity to convey nuanced criticism of moral behavior across different narrative contexts.