Standard Lemma guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
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name
A hamlet in Worthen with Shelve parish, western Shropshire, England (OS grid ref SO3399).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A rocky shelf or ledge of a cliff, a mountain, etc.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: archaic
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Alternative spelling of shelf (“a reef, sandbar, or shoal”).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: alt-of, alternative, archaic
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To furnish (a place) with shelves; especially, to furnish (a library, etc.) with bookshelves.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: transitive
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To place (something) on a shelf; especially, to place or arrange (books) on a bookshelf.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: transitive
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: deshelve, unshelve
verb
To place (something) in a certain location, as if on a shelf.
To take (drugs) by anal or vaginal insertion.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: figuratively, slang, transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To place (something) in a certain location, as if on a shelf.
To have sex with (someone).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Wales, figuratively, slang, transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: Formal terms, bed, coit, coitize, dight, enjoy, feague, go in unto, go to bed with, have, know, lie by, lie with, love, mount, occupy, penetrate, season, seduce, sleep with, take, Any of Thesaurus:copulate + "with", Informal and slang terms, ball, bang, bauf, beep, be with, bone, boff, boink, bonk, boom-boom, dick, diddle, dig out, do, doink, drill, eff, expletive deleted, fill, frack, frak, frick, frig, fuck, get into someone's pants, get over on, get up in, give someone one, give someone the time, go with, have one's way with, have one's wicked way with, hit, hump, jape, jump, jump someone's bones, knob, knock, knock off, know someone in the biblical sense, lay, love up, make, nail, plough, plug, poke, pork, pound, prig, pump, ravage, ream, rock, roger, root, run through, rut, sard, schlong, screw, see to, service, shaft, shag, shelve, slay, slip it to, smash, smush, stallionize, swive, tap, tup, wap
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To set aside (something), as if on a shelf.
To postpone or put aside, or entirely cease dealing with (a matter for discussion, a project, etc.).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: figuratively, transitive
Synonyms: mothball, pigeonhole, table, halt, quit, stop
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To set aside (something), as if on a shelf.
To remove (someone) from active service.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: also, figuratively, reflexive, transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To hang over or project like a shelf; to overhang.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: intransitive, obsolete
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To extend via a series of projecting shelves.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: intransitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To tilt or tip (a cart) to discharge its contents.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: UK, dialectal, transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Of land or a surface: to incline, to slope.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: intransitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To be in an inclined or sloping position.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: intransitive, obsolete
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
place on a shelf
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: put, set, place, pose, position, lay
verb
hold back to a later time
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Synonyms: postpone, prorogue, hold over, put over, table, set back, defer, remit, put off
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: delay
Narrower terms: call, hold, suspend, probate, reprieve, respite
History
The verb is a back-formation from shelves, the plural of shelf (“flat, rigid structure, fixed at right angles to a wall or forming a part of a cabinet, desk, etc., and used to display, store, or support objects”). The noun is derived from etymology 1, verb sense 2 (“(obsolete) to hang over or project like a shelf”).
Treated as a singular form of shelves, the plural of shelf (“reef; sandbar; shoal”).
From Late Middle English shelven (“to separate (someone or something) from another thing, keep away”); further etymology uncertain, possibly: * from shelf, shelfe (“shelf; cabinet, cupboard; grassy bank”) (though this is doubted by the Oxford English Dictionary); or * related to West Frisian skelf (“not level or straight, oblique”).
Across languages
27 source translations are retained for this English entry.
