Men cut the deck (5)
I believe the answer is:
orlop
'deck' is the definition.
(a deck on a ship)
'men cut' is the wordplay.
'men' becomes 'OR' (military abbreviation for other ranks).
'cut' becomes 'lop' (lopping is a kind of cutting).
'or'+'lop'='ORLOP'
'the' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for orlop that I've seen before include "part of ship" , "Lowest deck of a wooden sailing ship" , "Ship's lowest deck" , "hold covering" , "deck at the lowest point" .)