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shelf1

Pronunciation: /ʃɛlf/
Translate shelf | into French | into German | into Italian | into Spanish
Definition of shelf

noun (plural shelves /ʃɛlvz/)

  • 1a flat length of wood or rigid material, attached to a wall or forming part of a piece of furniture, that provides a surface for the storage or display of objects.
  • 2a ledge of rock or protruding strip of land.
  • a submarine bank, or a part of the continental shelf.

Phrases

off the shelf

not designed or made to order but taken from existing stock or supplies:off-the-shelf software packages

on the shelf

  • 1 informal no longer useful or desirable:an injury which has kept him on the shelf
  • 2(especially of a woman) past an age when one might expect to have the opportunity to marry.

Derivatives

shelf-ful

noun (plural shelf-fuls)

shelf-like

adjective

Origin:

Middle English: from Middle Low German schelf; related to Old English scylfe 'partition', scylf 'crag'

Spelling rule

Change the -f to -ves to make the plurals of nouns that end in a consonant or a single vowel plus -f or -fe: (shelves)

shelf in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of shelf in the US English dictionary

Nearby words

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