shelf

American  

[shelf] / ʃɛlf /

noun

shelves plural

1. a thin slab of wood, metal, etc., fixed horizontally to a wall or in a frame, for supporting objects.

2. the contents of this.

   a shelf of books.

3. a surface or projection resembling this; ledge.

4. Physical Geography.

   1. a sandbank or submerged extent of rock in the sea or river.

   2. the bedrock underlying an alluvial deposit or the like.

   3. continental shelf.

5. Archery. the upper part of the bow hand, on which the arrow rests.

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idioms

1. off the shelf, readily available from merchandise in stock.

   Any of those parts can be purchased off the shelf.

2. on the shelf,

   1. put aside temporarily; postponed.

   2. inactive; useless.

   3. without prospects of marriage, as after having broken an engagement.

shelf British  

/ ʃɛlf /

noun

1. a thin flat plank of wood, metal, etc, fixed horizontally against a wall, etc, for the purpose of supporting objects

2. something resembling this in shape or function

3. the objects placed on a shelf, regarded collectively

   a shelf of books

4. a projecting layer of ice, rock, etc, on land or in the sea See also continental shelf

5. mining a layer of bedrock hit when sinking a shaft

6. archery the part of the hand on which an arrow rests when the bow is grasped

7. See off the shelf

8. put aside or abandoned: used esp of unmarried women considered to be past the age of marriage

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verb

1. slang (tr) to inform upon

shelf Scientific  

/ shĕlf /

1. See continental shelf

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shelf More Idioms  

1. see off the shelf; on the shelf.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• shelflike
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• shelves
  plural

Etymology

Origin of shelf

1350–1400; Middle English; Old English scylfe; akin to Low German schelf shelf, Old Norse -skjalf bench

Example Sentences

Investments in Woodside are particularly awkward for Tuvalu, which was scathing when Australia approved a 40-year extension for Woodside's North West Shelf gas project in 2025.

From Barron's • May 28, 2026

Cut and welded from 5mm aluminum, the Bat Shelf comes in a raw aluminum finish or a powder-coated red.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 17, 2026

National Gas said it expected Britain to have enough gas for the summer - primarily from the UK Continental Shelf and Norway.

From BBC • Apr. 14, 2026

A spokesperson for Woodside said the weather event had interrupted production at the Karratha Gas Plant, an onshore processing facility for the North West Shelf Project.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 27, 2026

In eighteen hours, it would hit the Sulzberger Ice Shelf in Antarctica, where it would knock loose an iceberg twice the size of Manhattan.

From "Meltdown" by Deirdre Langeland

Related Words

• counter
• cupboard
• ledge
• rack