Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to get up from one’s bed.

1913		Alumni Quarterly of Hamline University 10-15 12: At three o’clock yesterday morning I awoke. I had heard the familiar ‘hit the deck’ as our Master-at-Arms shouted.
1916		R.M. Hallet Trial by Fire 257: ‘You might as well go out there and turn the screw with your hands. Hit the deck.’ Slim hit the deck.
1917		letter in K.F. Cowing Dear Folks at Home (1919) 4: Hit the deck, leatherneck – Rise and Shine.
1929		(con. WWI) J.B. Wharton Squad 13: Come on, you guys, hit th’ deck, th’ day’s on!
1948		H. McCoy Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye in Four Novels (1983) 83: Just a great big hunk of obscene flesh standing there [...] yelling for us to hit the deck.
1958		(con. 1940s) B. Behan Borstal Boy 158: Up, Paddy, ’it the deck.
1965		H. Rhodes Chosen Few (1966) 25: ‘HIT TH’ DECK!!’ was the next sound Blood heard.
1979		(con. c.1970) G. Hasford Short Timers (1985) 105: Hey, hit the deck, leatherneck, we’re moving.

2. to fall down, to throw oneself down.

1920		Columbia Eve. Missourian (MO) 13 Sept. 3/2: I’ll wire and offer it [...] before you hit the the deck.
1926		(con. 1918) J.W. Thomason Fix Bayonets! 121: Boche! Hit the deck!
1956		J. Curtis Look Long Upon a Monkey 186: They both caught Stringy’s shoulders to spin him, lurching, across the floor. At all costs he must not hit the deck. [Ibid.] 191: Stringy hit the deck, curling into a ball, his head tucked on his chest, elbows close to his sides, wrists crossed in front of his fork.
1960		J.P. Donleavy Fairy Tales of N.Y. III i: You know that’s the first time Cornelius Christian’s ever hit the deck.
1985		E. Leonard Glitz 2: He should have [...] screamed in the guy’s face to hit the deck, now, or he was fucking dead.
1995		A. Heckerling Clueless [film script] (Travis jumps onto the crowd. No one keeps him up and he hits the deck).
2020		G. Armstrong Young Team 19: The cunt ’s eyes go funny as he hits the deck.

3. to go to bed.

1927		Danville (Va.) Bee 27 May 3/1: The U. S. Navy has a language or a ‘slanguage’ all its own. [...] ‘hit the deck’ is to turn to [i.e. go to sleep].
1935		W. de la Mare in Proceedings British Academy XXI 247: He hit the deck; he slung his hammock; he went to bed; he retired for the night [...] all signify much the same thing.

4. to be poor.

1937

J. Curtis You’re in the Racket, Too 39: Just because you’ve hit the deck I don’t see why I can’t have a bit of fun.

5. (Aus.) to pay for a round of drinks.

1967

‘Whisper All Aussie Dict.’ in Kings Cross Whisper (Sydney) xxxv 6/2: hit the deck: Pay for the drinks.

1. on the schedule, scheduled.

1885		Puck (N.Y.) 8 Apr. 83: What’s on deck this aft? [HDAS].
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 3 Feb. 7/1: All the good old cant terms about ‘freedom’ and the ‘British flag’ and the ‘ashes of our fathers’ are on deck again in this agitation.
1913		H.A. Franck Zone Policeman 88 176: ‘Shall I borrow a gun, Lieutenant?’ I asked when I found myself ‘on deck’.

2. alive; conscious.

1873		Daily Missouri Democrat 15 Mar. in Miller & Snell Why the West was Wild 208: He is still ‘on deck’.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 17 Feb. 24/2: He stretched Ned out three times in the first round, four in the next, and still the Sunday lad stayed on deck, smothering his face with both arms or doing a ‘Botany’ round the square when things became too lively.
1912		Bulletin (Sydney) 29 Aug. 12/3: His gallery is supposed to represent the founders of the Commonwealth, among other things. It is to consist mostly of Governors and nonentities. Some of them hardly look big enough to deserve a place even now, when they are still on deck or just newly gone below.

3. available, prepared.

1881		‘Bill Nye’ Bill Nye and Boomerang 15: They loved each other in season and out of season [...] If Damon were at the bat, Pythias was on deck.
1884		(con. c.1840) ‘Mark Twain’ Huckleberry Finn 335: When the snakes was asleep the rats was on deck, and when the rats turned in the snakes come on watch.
1902		(con. 1894) S. Crane in Last Words in Stallman (1966) 191: When it comes t’ takin’ care ’a his dorter, he’s right on deck every single possible time.
1920		F. Packard White Moll 72: I’ve got to be on deck where they can slip me the ‘white ones’.
1948		Hungry Horse News 24 Sept. 8/1: We hope to be on deck to greet you when you visit your brother [DA].
1960, 1975		Wentworth & Flexner DAS.
1973		G.V. Higgins Digger’s Game (1981) 86: The vig starts when the paper’s onna deck.
1999		L. Gould Shagadelically Speaking 31: He’s ‘got a crap on deck that could choke a donkey’.
2001		Source Aug. 144: ‘I was like on deck...’ Snoop holds an imaginary gun and squeezes the trigger. ‘On deck, like ready for whatever.’.
2014		Young Jeezy ‘Enough’ 🎵 I’m on deck, on point, I’m straight, I’m cool.
2015		67 ‘Live Corn’ 🎵 3 litre ding-dong skidding round the hill / Swammy on deck and we’re lurking for a kill.

4. present.

1940		R.L. Bellem ‘Death’s Passport’ in Goodstone Pulps (1970) 117/1: Just as I expected Dave Donaldson was still on deck when we ankled in.
1942		W. Winchell On Broadway 18 July. [synd. col.] It was the maid’s day off and too early for the nurse to be on deck.
1943		R.L. Bellem ‘Dead Man’s Shakedown’ in Dan Turner Detective Mar. 🌐 When I ankled into his private office above the theater at seven-thirty, he wasn’t on deck.
2023		Rayman & Blau Riker’s 46: These are Black people, Latino people, very few white guys on deck with them.

bankrupt, without funds.

1936

J. Curtis Gilt Kid 12: I’d rather be back in stir again than have another night on the deck.