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all hands on deck

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all hands on deck

1. A call for all members of a ship's crew to come to the deck, usually in a time of crisis. (A "hand" is a member of a ship's crew.) We're under attack! All hands on deck!

2. By extension, everyone available to help with a problem, or a call for those people to help. Your grandmother arrives tomorrow and the house is still a mess—I need all hands on deck to help me clean! All hands on deck! We've got to roll out this tarp before the rain starts. Now let's go!

See also: all, deck, hand, on

all hands on deck

  also all hands to the pumps

something that you say when everyone's help is needed, especially to do a lot of work in a short amount of time We've got to get all this cleared up before they arrive so it's all hands on deck.

See also: all, deck, hand, on