The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Short-handed \Short`-hand"ed\, a.
   Short of, or lacking the regular number of, servants or
   helpers.
   [1913 Webster]

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Underhanded \Un"der*hand`ed\, a.
   1. Underhand; clandestine.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. Insufficiently provided with hands or workers;
      short-handed; sparsely populated; obsolete in this sense,
      short-handed or understaffed being the preferrred
      term.
      [1913 Webster +JG]

            Norway . . . might defy the world, . . . but it is
            much underhanded now.                 --Coleridge.
      [1913 Webster]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

short-handed
    adj 1: inadequate in number of workers or assistants etc.;
           "they're rather short-handed at the moment"; "overcrowded
           and understaffed hospitals" [syn: short-handed, short-
           staffed, undermanned, understaffed]

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

27 Moby Thesaurus words for "shorthanded":
   bare-handed, beggarly, empty-handed, famished, half-starved,
   ill off, ill-equipped, ill-furnished, ill-provided, impoverished,
   on short commons, pauperized, poor, short, starved, starveling,
   starving, underfed, underhanded, undermanned, undernourished,
   understaffed, unfed, unprovided, unreplenished, unsupplied,
   wanting