"clear the decks" meaning in English

See clear the decks in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Forms: clears the decks [present, singular, third-person], clearing the decks [participle, present], cleared the decks [participle, past], cleared the decks [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|*}} clear the decks (third-person singular simple present clears the decks, present participle clearing the decks, simple past and past participle cleared the decks)
  1. (nautical) To remove, or fasten, all loose material, or partitions prior to a naval engagement. Categories (topical): Nautical
    Sense id: en-clear_the_decks-en-verb-n1MSPvd6 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 94 6 Topics: nautical, transport
  2. (by extension, figurative) To prepare for action. Tags: broadly, figuratively
    Sense id: en-clear_the_decks-en-verb-ekyRLZks
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Related terms: all hands on deck, battle stations Translations (order): הִכּוֹן לַקְרָב (hikon lakrav) (Hebrew), zafarrancho (Spanish)
Disambiguation of 'order': 0 0

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for clear the decks meaning in English (2.0kB)

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "clears the decks",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "clearing the decks",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "cleared the decks",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "cleared the decks",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "clear the decks (third-person singular simple present clears the decks, present participle clearing the decks, simple past and past participle cleared the decks)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "_dis1": "55 45",
      "word": "all hands on deck"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "55 45",
      "word": "battle stations"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Nautical",
          "orig": "en:Nautical",
          "parents": [
            "Transport",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "94 6",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To remove, or fasten, all loose material, or partitions prior to a naval engagement."
      ],
      "id": "en-clear_the_decks-en-verb-n1MSPvd6",
      "links": [
        [
          "nautical",
          "nautical"
        ],
        [
          "remove",
          "remove"
        ],
        [
          "fasten",
          "fasten"
        ],
        [
          "partition",
          "partition"
        ],
        [
          "naval",
          "naval"
        ],
        [
          "engagement",
          "engagement"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(nautical) To remove, or fasten, all loose material, or partitions prior to a naval engagement."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "nautical",
        "transport"
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "To prepare for action."
      ],
      "id": "en-clear_the_decks-en-verb-ekyRLZks",
      "links": [
        [
          "prepare",
          "prepare"
        ],
        [
          "action",
          "action"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(by extension, figurative) To prepare for action."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "broadly",
        "figuratively"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "code": "he",
      "lang": "Hebrew",
      "roman": "hikon lakrav",
      "sense": "order",
      "word": "הִכּוֹן לַקְרָב"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "order",
      "word": "zafarrancho"
    }
  ],
  "word": "clear the decks"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English verbs"
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "clears the decks",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "clearing the decks",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "cleared the decks",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "cleared the decks",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "clear the decks (third-person singular simple present clears the decks, present participle clearing the decks, simple past and past participle cleared the decks)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "all hands on deck"
    },
    {
      "word": "battle stations"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "en:Nautical"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To remove, or fasten, all loose material, or partitions prior to a naval engagement."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "nautical",
          "nautical"
        ],
        [
          "remove",
          "remove"
        ],
        [
          "fasten",
          "fasten"
        ],
        [
          "partition",
          "partition"
        ],
        [
          "naval",
          "naval"
        ],
        [
          "engagement",
          "engagement"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(nautical) To remove, or fasten, all loose material, or partitions prior to a naval engagement."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "nautical",
        "transport"
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "To prepare for action."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "prepare",
          "prepare"
        ],
        [
          "action",
          "action"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(by extension, figurative) To prepare for action."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "broadly",
        "figuratively"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "he",
      "lang": "Hebrew",
      "roman": "hikon lakrav",
      "sense": "order",
      "word": "הִכּוֹן לַקְרָב"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "order",
      "word": "zafarrancho"
    }
  ],
  "word": "clear the decks"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-26 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (93a6c53 and 21a9316). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.