half deck

American  

noun

1. (in a sailing ship) the portion of the deck below the upper or spar deck and aft of the mainmast.

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Other Word Forms

• half-decker
  noun

Etymology

Origin of half deck

First recorded in 1620–30

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

half deck

It's a sight out of a Twain lover's imagined memory: a tiny, homemade Mississippi River raft, buoyant on blue oil-drums, flapping blue canvas greetings from its scanty half deck.

From Time Magazine Archive

Higher up and farther back was another wall of shields; for on the half deck in the stern of every ship stood the captain with his shield-guard of a dozen men.

From Viking Tales by Lambdin, Victor Ralph

Now they were come to the prow, and there was a half deck under which they were set, out of reach of the wind and water.

From Eric Brighteyes by Haggard, Henry Rider

We then arranged to eat with the mate and another passenger above on the half deck.

From Journal of Jasper Danckaerts, 1679-1680 by James, Bartlett Burleigh

They could not, indeed, provide against the barbarity of their captains; but they secured them a space under the half deck in which to sleep.

From The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave-Trade, by the British Parliament (1839) by Clarkson, Thomas