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

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Etymology

Origin of half deck

First recorded in 1620–30

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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

She was a very poor subject to work upon, but he got out the wood for building a half deck over her, which he fitted on as he had opportunity.

From Little By Little or, The Cruise of the Flyaway by Oliver Optic

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

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

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 Thomas Clarkson

The female convicts, who were battened down under the hatches, on the vessel’s running aground, broke away the half deck hatch, and frantic, rushed on deck.

From Thrilling Narratives of Mutiny, Murder and Piracy A weird series of tales of shipwreck and disaster, from the earliest part of the century to the present time, with accounts of providential escapes and heart-rending fatalities. by Anonymous

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