shelve

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See also: Shelve

English

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WOTD – 7 January 2024

Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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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”).[1]

The noun is derived from sense 2 (“(obsolete) to hang over or project like a shelf”).[2]

Verb

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shelve (third-person singular simple present shelves, present participle shelving, simple past and past participle shelved)

  1. (transitive)
    1. To furnish (a place) with shelves; especially, to furnish (a library, etc.) with bookshelves.
      to shelve a closet or a library
    2. To place (something) on a shelf; especially, to place or arrange (books) on a bookshelf.
      Antonyms: deshelve, unshelve
      The library needs volunteers to help shelve books.
      • 1827 July 1 (date written), Walter Scott, “[Entry dated 1 July 1827]”, in David Douglas, editor, The Journal of Sir Walter Scott […], volume II, Edinburgh: David Douglas, published 1890, →OCLC, page 1:
        Before breakfast I employed myself in airing my old bibliomaniacal hobby, entering all the books lately acquired into a temporary catalogue, so as to have them shelved and marked.
    3. (figurative) To place (something) in a certain location, as if on a shelf.
      1. (slang) To take (drugs) by anal or vaginal insertion.
        • 2002 June 4, Anthony Hodges, “Drugs Seized by Customs”, in alt.anagrams‎[1] (Usenet):
          I love shelving ecstasy!
        • 2011 June 19, Frances Morton, quoting Emma, “School daze”, in Shayne Currie, editor, The Herald on Sunday‎[2], Auckland: New Zealand Media and Entertainment, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-04-20:
          I had a funny conversation with my dad last night about shelving. It's when you shelve a pill up your bum. It was a lovely dinner conversation. […] My parents were like, in our generation we didn't snort pills, we used to drop them because it's so bad to snort. I was like, Yeah, what about shelving? They were like What? I was, Oh no, I thought you'd know.
        • 2013 February 22, Edward J. Benavidez, “Effects of Ecstasy”, in Getting High: The Effects of Drugs, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris, →ISBN, page 65:
          Some people use Ecstasy using a method known as "shafting" or "shelving" which involves inserting a pill or tablet into the anus.
        • 2016, “Pharmacology and Pathophysiology”, in John B. Saunders [et al.], editors, Addiction Medicine (Oxford Specialist Handbooks), 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 44:
          Amphetamines and ATS can be smoked, snorted, injected, or taken orallym, including rubbing on gums. Occasionally, they are taken anally (‘shelving’).
      2. (Wales, slang) To have sex with (someone).
        Synonyms: see Thesaurus:copulate with
    4. (figurative) To set aside (something), as if on a shelf.
      1. To postpone or put aside, or entirely cease dealing with (a matter for discussion, a project, etc.).
        (postpone): Synonyms: mothball, pigeonhole, table
        (entirely cease): Synonyms: halt, quit, stop
        They shelved the entire project when they heard how much it would cost.
        • 1855 December – 1857 June, Charles Dickens, “Containing the Whole Science of Government”, in Little Dorrit, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1857, →OCLC, book the first (Poverty), page 87:
          [T]he Circumlocution Office, being reminded that my lords had arrived at no decision, shelved the business.
        • 1950 April, “The Mountain Section of the Bergen-Oslo Railway”, in The Railway Magazine, London: Tothill Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 223:
          Among the schemes that have been shelved is one for the electrification of the railway between Bergen and Oslo. [Electrification was completed in 1964.]
        • 1961 October, “Motive Power Miscellany: Scottish Region”, in Trains Illustrated, London: Ian Allan Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 636:
          The arrival of the new Birmingham units on the West Highland line suggests that a scheme to use 16 of the next batch of English Electric Type 4s previously allotted to the Scottish Region, Nos. D357–D384, on the West Highland and Callander-Oban lines has been shelved.
        • 2005, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, David Kessler, “The Inner World of Grief”, in On Grief and Grieving: Finding the Meaning of Grief through the Five Stages of Loss, New York, N.Y.: Scribner, published August 2014, →ISBN, page 102:
          When we shelve our pain, it doesn't go away. Rather, it festers in a myriad of ways. We need to undersand that strength and grief fit together. We must be strong to handle grief, and in the end, grief brings out strengths we never knew we had.
      2. (also reflexive) To remove (someone) from active service.
        • 1838, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], chapter I, in Alice or The Mysteries […], volume III, London: Saunders and Otley, […], →OCLC, book IX, page 90:
          The time, too, nearly ripe for his great schemes, made it doubly necessary that he should exert himself, and prevent being shelved with a plausible excuse of tender compassion for his infirmities.
  3. (intransitive, obsolete) To hang over or project like a shelf; to overhang.
Derived terms
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Translations
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Noun

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shelve (plural shelves)

  1. (archaic) A rocky shelf or ledge of a cliff, a mountain, etc.
Derived terms
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Translations
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Etymology 2

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From Late Middle English shelven (“to separate (someone or something) from another thing, keep away”);[3] further etymology uncertain, possibly:[4]

Verb

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shelve (third-person singular simple present shelves, present participle shelving, simple past and past participle shelved)

  1. (transitive, British, dialectal) To tilt or tip (a cart) to discharge its contents.
  2. (intransitive)
    1. Of land or a surface: to incline, to slope.
      • 1843, Digby P[ilot] Starkey, Judas; a Tragic Mystery, Dublin: William Curry, Jun. and Company; London: Longman, Brown, and Co., →OCLC, Act V, scene iv, page 170:
        The spirit cometh first, wrapt 'twixt our wings, / Adown the causeway steep, / That shelveth towards the silent shadowy deep, / The grave of things.
      • 1864, John Campbell Shairp, “Canto III. The Island.”, in Kilmahoe: A Highland Pastoral: With Other Poems, London, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 23:
        From that island's crown / Landward a slope of heather shelveth down / To meet the bar, but all the outer sides, / Sheer walls of porphyry, stem the swinging tides / The Atlantic sendeth, […]
      • 1958, Anthony Burgess, chapter 16, in The Enemy in the Blanket (The Malayan Trilogy; 2), London: William Heinemann, published 1979, →ISBN, page 185:
        The sand shelved gently here. Only at waist-level did the sudden dips occur, and then an upward-sloping hill would lead to a sand-bar, to a new shore islanded in the sea.
    2. (obsolete) To be in an inclined or sloping position.
Conjugation
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Conjugation of shelve
infinitive (to) shelve
present tense past tense
1st-person singular shelve shelved
2nd-person singular shelve, shelvest† shelved, shelvedst†
3rd-person singular shelves, shelveth† shelved
plural shelve
subjunctive shelve shelved
imperative shelve —
participles shelving shelved

†Archaic or obsolete.

Derived terms
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Translations
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Etymology 3

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Treated as a singular form of shelves, the plural of shelf (“reef; sandbar; shoal”).[6]

Noun

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shelve (plural shelves)

  1. (archaic) Alternative spelling of shelf (“a reef, sandbar, or shoal”)
    • 1582, Virgil, “The Firste Booke of Virgil His Aeneis”, in Richard Stanyhurst, transl., The First Foure Bookes of Virgils Æneis, […], London: Henrie Bynneman […], published 1583, →OCLC; republished as The First Four Books of the Æneid of Virgil, […], Edinburgh: [Edinburgh Printing Company], 1836, →OCLC, page 21:
      But with a ſlaw ſuddein chauffing ſtorm-bringer Orion, / Spurnt vs too the waters: then ſootherne ſwaſhruter huffling / Flung vs on high ſhelueflats, to the rocks vs he buffeted after.
    • 1611, Iohn Speed [i.e., John Speed], “Elizabeth Queene of England, France, and Ireland, […]”, in The History of Great Britaine under the Conquests of yͤ Romans, Saxons, Danes and Normans. […], London: […] William Hall and John Beale, for John Sudbury and George Humble, […], →OCLC, book IX ([Englands Monarchs] […]), paragraph 210, page 861:
      [T]he greateſt of their Galliaſſes fell foule vpon another ſhip, and loſt her Rudder, ſo that guideleſſe ſhe droue vvith the tide vpon a ſhelue in the ſhoare of Callis, vvhere ſhee vvas aſſaulted by the Engliſh.
    • 1819 July 15, [Lord Byron], Don Juan, London: […] Thomas Davison, […], →OCLC, canto II, stanza CLXXXI, page 209:
      And all was stillness, save the sea-bird's cry, / And dolphin's leap, and little billow crost / By some low rock or shelve, that made it fret / Against the boundary it scarcely wet.
    • 1823 December 23 (indicated as 1824), [Walter Scott], “Theatricals”, in St Ronan’s Well. […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 156:
      But upon inquiry among the company, this plan was wrecked upon the ordinary shelve, to wit, the difficulty of finding performers who would consent to assume the lower characters of the drama.
      A figurative use.
Derived terms
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References

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  1. ^ “shelve, v.2”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, September 2023; “shelve1, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  2. ^ “shelve, n.2”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, July 2023.
  3. ^ “shelven, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  4. ^ “shelve, v.3”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, July 2023; “shelve2, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  5. ^ “shelf(e, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  6. ^ “shelve, n.1”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, July 2023.

Anagrams

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