deckhand meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

deckhand

noun

US /ˈdɛkˌhænd/

Etymology From deck + hand.

Nautical, Transport A member of the crew of a merchant ship who performs manual labour.

Entertainment, Lifestyle, Theater 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:

verb

Etymology From deck + hand.

To work on a boat as a deckhand; crew.

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:
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:

2 more examples

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:
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: