Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a look, a glance.

1829		[H.B. Henderson] Bengalee 146: When he inspects his indigo fields, he takes a dékh at the plant, or chuls over the kates.
1832		Oriental Sporting Mag. Aug. 334/1: [H]e himself shortly after retired, letting me know, however, as he left the room, that he should be up betimes to have a ‘dekh’ at the stud.
1841		F.J. Bellew ‘Memoirs of a Griffin’ in Asiatic Jrnl & Mthly Register May 52: Just now taking a dekh (look) at the Calcutta Khubber (News), I saw your name amongst those of a batch of griffs and Tazuwulaits (fresh Europeans), having arrived by the Rottenbeam Castle.
1853		W.D. Arnold Oakfield (1855) 58: Some officer, stopping, as he passed by returning from his morning ride ‘just to have a dekh at the steamer’ .
1886		Yule & Burnell Hobson-Jobson 234/1: Deck, s. A look, a peep. Hind. dekh-n?, ‘to look’.
1932		M. Marshall Travels of Tramp-Royal 298: Take a dekk at this chump on the shore, you chaps.
1935		(con. 1920s) McArthur & Long No Mean City 13: He heard the sound of a mouth organ. ‘That’ll be a clabber jigging, Johnnie,’ he exclaimed. ‘Come along an’ have a deck (look).’.
1953		A.J. Liebling Honest Rainmaker (1991) 96: Double-Deck Tobin, the two-headed baseball pitcher, who was able to visualise simultaneously both first and third bases.
1960		H.E. Bates When the Green Woods Laugh (1985) 241: I’ll take you down there when you had a deck at the house.