Word.ws English Dictionary

on the deck

on the deck prepositional phrase: flying at a very low altitude.

Prepositional phrase

  1. Flying at a very low altitude.
    • The HAWK is one of the Army's newest air defense weapons. It is capable of carrying a modern warhead and of destroying attackers flying "on the deck" at such ranges as to insure effective protection of defended areas.1961, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Armed Services, Hearings ... on Sundry Legislation Affecting the Naval and Military Establishments (issues 10–32, page 1340)
    • The fighters were flying “on the deck” — as close to the water as possible — to avoid detection.2008, Sydney Sharpe, Staying in the Game: The Remarkable Story of Doc Seaman, page 42
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see on, the, deck.

Questions about on the deck

What does on the deck mean?
On the deck means flying at a very low altitude.
What part of speech is on the deck?
On the deck is a prepositional phrase.

Words near on the deck in the dictionary

  1. on the cuff
  2. on the cusp
  3. on the cutting room floor
  4. on the daily
  5. on the debit side
  6. on the deck
  7. on the defensive
  8. on the district
  9. on the DL
  10. on the docket
  11. on the door

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: on the deck (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “on the deck.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/on_the_deck. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.