on deck

prepositional phrase

On the deck of a ship, especially of a captain or officer; in charge.

“Jones is the on-deck batter.”

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Meanings

prepositional phrase
  1. nauticalOn the deck of a ship, especially of a captain or officer; in charge.

    In every sense of the expression he is ‘on deck’; but my Jim, for the most part, skulked down below as though he had been a stowaway.

    1899 September – 1900 July, Joseph Conrad, chapter XIX, in Lord Jim: A Tale, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, published 1900, →OCLC, page 213
  2. ball gamesBeing the batter who will be up next, typically when that player is waiting on the field.

    Jones is the on-deck batter.

Translations

French sur le pont
  • sur le ponton the deck of a ship
Cite this entry
APA

on deck. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/on%20deck

MLA

“on deck.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/on%20deck. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “on deck,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/on%20deck.

Source: on deck on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.