Dictionary

deckhand en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈdɛkˌhænd/ (General-American)
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

From deck + hand.

Meanings

1. A member of the crew of a merchant ship who performs manual labour.
   • But I wasn't good medicine for myself after I left them, he admitted, remembering the dreary years of failure at farming and trading, as blacksmith and deck hand and bullwhacker. 1952, Dorothy M. Johnson, The Unbeliever; in Indian Country, London: Corgi, 1961, page 33:
2. A stagehand.
   • Sometimes actors set props on the spikes, or sometimes a deckhand will do it, depending on the action of the play. 2020, John Ramsey Holloway, Zachary Stribling, Illustrated Theatre Production Guide, page 15:

Forms

Translations (12)

is háseti (a member of the crew) · mi kaimahi kāraho (a member of the crew) · tr deniz eri (a member of the crew) · tr tayfa (a member of the crew) · bg матрос (a member of the crew) · fi kansimies (a member of the crew) · izh alustrenki (a member of the crew) · gv marrinagh (a member of the crew) · nl dekknecht (a member of the crew) · tr miço (a member of the crew) · pl majtek (a member of the crew) · pl marynarz pokładowy (a member of the crew)

deckhand en · VERB

Pronunciation

• /ˈdɛkˌhænd/ (General-American)
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

From deck + hand.

Meanings

1. (intransitive) To work on a boat as a deckhand; crew.
   • Larry ran a tugboat company from there, and sometimes my brother and I deckhanded for him. 2017, Claire Dederer, Love and Trouble: Memoirs of a Former Wild Girl, →ISBN:
   • I deckhanded on a fish boat for four years and knew no fisherman likes to be called out of the blue and have his numbers demanded! 2004, Stephen Hume, A Stain Upon the Sea: West Coast Salmon Farming, →ISBN, page 210:
   • You deckhand for Old Sam in the summer, you guide climbers up the Big Bump in the spring, you can skin a Cat, mine for gold, butcher a moose, fix an engine. 1999, Dana Stabenow, Hunter's Moon, →ISBN:
   • Years later, I met a guy who had deckhanded on her after I did, and he was a little more equivocal. 2011, Bruce Burrows, The River Killers, →ISBN, page 16:

Forms