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Expression: All hands on deck
The expression all hands on deck comes from the days of sailing when sailing ships were the primary form of transportation worldwide.
First, I need to explain that hand can be used to refer to a person who does physical work or has some particular skill that’s required.
Sometimes, a worker with much experience is called an old hand, for example.
Now, I can get back to our expression for today.
During a storm or other emergency, a ship needs everyone working together to keep it safe.
The captain would give the command, “All hands on deck!” and all the men (only men worked on ships in those days) would cooperate to take care of the sails and ropes.
These days, when we need everybody to work together to get something done quickly, we use this expression all hands on deck.
Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test
This post is understandable by someone with at least an 8th-grade education (age 13 – 14).
On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 69.
The easier a passage is to read, the higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100.