all hands on deck
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Also seen as: all hands to the pump
Meaning · English
Everyone is needed to help with a difficult situation
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
Mọi người cần giúp đỡ trong tình huống khó khăn
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: all crew members helping on a ship
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Sources & notes
Listed on Wikipedia “List of proverbial phrases” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “all hands on deck” mean?
Everyone is needed to help with a difficult situation Literally: all crew members helping on a ship
Is “all hands on deck” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.