English

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Etymology

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From deck +‎ hand.

Noun

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deckhand (plural deckhands)

  1. (nautical) A member of the crew of a merchant ship who performs manual labour.
  2. (theater) A stagehand.
    • 2020, John Ramsey Holloway, Zachary Stribling, Illustrated Theatre Production Guide, page 15:
      Sometimes actors set props on the spikes, or sometimes a deckhand will do it, depending on the action of the play.

Translations

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Verb

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deckhand (third-person singular simple present deckhands, present participle deckhanding, simple past and past participle deckhanded)

  1. (intransitive) To work on a boat as a deckhand; crew.
    • 1999, Dana Stabenow, Hunter's Moon, →ISBN:
      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.
    • 2004, Stephen Hume, A Stain Upon the Sea: West Coast Salmon Farming, →ISBN, page 210:
      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!
    • 2011, Bruce Burrows, The River Killers, →ISBN, page 16:
      Years later, I met a guy who had deckhanded on her after I did, and he was a little more equivocal.
    • 2017, Claire Dederer, Love and Trouble: Memoirs of a Former Wild Girl, →ISBN:
      Larry ran a tugboat company from there, and sometimes my brother and I deckhanded for him.