English [ edit ] Etymology [ edit ] From Middle English schelfe Old English sċylfe ( “ deck of a ship ” ) , distantly related to sculpt carve shell Dutch schelf
Pronunciation [ edit ] shelf (plural shelves
A simple wooden wall shelf
A flat , rigid structure , fixed at right angles to a wall or forming a part of a cabinet , desk etc., and used to support , store or display objects .
We keep the old newspapers on the bottom shelf of the cupboard, and our photos on the top shelf .
2012 October 31, David M. Halbfinger, "[1] ," New York Times (retrieved 31 October 2012) :
Localities across New Jersey imposed curfews to prevent looting. In Monmouth, Ocean and other counties, people waited for hours for gasoline at the few stations that had electricity. Supermarket shelves were stripped bare.
The capacity of such an object
a shelf of videos
A projecting ledge that resembles such an object.
A reef , shoal or sandbar . Synonyms [ edit ] Related terms [ edit ] Hyponyms [ edit ] Derived terms [ edit ] Related terms [ edit ] Descendants [ edit ] Translations [ edit ]
structure
Albanian: raft (sq) m
Arabic: رَفّ m ( raff )
Egyptian Arabic: رف m ( raff )
Armenian: դարակ (hy) ( darak )
Azerbaijani: rəf (az)
Bashkir: кәштә ( käštä )
Basque: apal
Belarusian: палі́ца f ( palíca )
Bengali: তাক ( tak )
Breton: estajerenn n
Bulgarian: по́лица (bg) f ( pólica ) , етаже́рка (bg) f ( etažérka ) , рафт (bg) m ( raft )
Burmese: စင် (my) ( cang )
Catalan: prestatge (ca) m estant (ca) m lleixa (ca) f
Cebuano: estante
Chechen: терхи ( terχi )
Chinese:
Cantonese: 架 ( gaa3-2 )
Mandarin: 架子 (zh) ( jiàzi )
Min Nan: 架仔 (zh-min-nan) ( kè-á )
Czech: police (cs) f
Danish: hylde (da) c
Dutch: schap (nl) n rek (nl) n plank (nl) f legplank (nl) f
Esperanto: breto
Estonian: riiul
Faroese: hill f
Fijian: vata (fj)
Finnish: hylly (fi)
French: rayon (fr) m étagère (fr) f tablard (fr) m ( Switzerland )
Friulian: scansìe m
Galician: paramio m paraño m parañoa f andel (gl) m alzadeira f cunqueiro (gl) m vaseira f prateleira f
Georgian: თარო ( taro )
German: Regal (de) n
Greek: ράφι (el) n ( ráfi )
Gujarati: અભરાઈ f ( abharāī )
Hebrew: מַדָּף (he) m ( madáf )
Hindi: तख़्ता ( taxtā )
Hungarian: polc (hu) , stelázsi
Icelandic: hilla (is) f
Indonesian: rak (id)
Ingush: тархе ( tarχe )
Irish: seilf f
Italian: scaffale (it) m mensola (it) f ripiano (it) m palchetto (it) m
Japanese: 棚 (ja) ( たな , tana)
Kalmyk: таг ( tag )
Kazakh: сөре (kk) ( söre )
Khmer: ធ្នើរ (km) ( tnəə )
Komi-Permyak: джадж ( džadž )
Korean: 선반 (ko) ( seonban )
Kyrgyz: полка ( polqa ) , текче (ky) ( tekçe )
Lao: ຫິ້ງ ( hing ) , ຊັ້ນ ( san )
Latvian: plaukts m
Ligurian: rician m
Lingala: motáláká 3 or 4
Lithuanian: lentyna f
Macedonian: полица f ( polica )
Malagasy: talantalana (mg)
Malay: rak (ms)
Maltese: xkaffa f
Manx: skelloo f
Maori: paenga whata
Middle English: stage
Mongolian: тавиур (mn) ( taviur )
Neapolitan: stìglio m scanzia f
Norman: ais m ( Guernsey, Jersey ) , êtagéthe f ( Jersey )
Northern Sami: hildu
Norwegian:
Bokmål: hylle (no) m or f
Nynorsk: hylle f
Ojibwe: desaabaan
Persian: رف (fa) ( raf )
Polish: półka (pl) f regał (pl) m
Portuguese: prateleira (pt) f estante (pt) f
Romanian: poliță (ro) f raft (ro) n
Russian: по́лка (ru) f ( pólka )
Scottish Gaelic: sgeilp f
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: по̀лица f ра̏ф m
Roman: pòlica (sh) f rȁf (sh) m
Sicilian: scaffa (scn) f
Slovak: polica f
Slovene: políca (sl) f
Sorbian:
Lower Sorbian: regal m pólica f
Spanish: estante (es) m balda (es) f anaquel (es) m entrepaño (es) m
Swahili: rafu 9 or 10
Swedish: hylla (sv) c
Tajik: раф ( raf )
Tamil: அடுக்கம் (ta) ( aṭukkam ) , அடுக்கு (ta) ( aṭukku )
Tatar: киштә (tt) ( kiştä )
Telugu: అర (te) ( ara )
Thai: หิ้ง (th) ( hîng )
Tibetan: བང་ཁྲི ( bang khri )
Turkish: sergen (tr) , raf (tr)
Turkmen: tekje
Udmurt: ӝажы ( džažy )
Ukrainian: поли́ця f ( polýcja )
Urdu: تخته ( taxta )
Uyghur: جازا ( jaza )
Uzbek: polka (uz) , tokcha (uz)
Venetian: scansìa f
Vietnamese: giá sách ( bookshelf ) , giá (vi)
Vilamovian: faht n faocht n
Walloon: axhale f axhlete (wa) f
Welsh: silff (cy) f silffoedd (cy) f pl
Westrobothnian: hill f
Yakut: долбуур ( dolbuur )
Yiddish: פּאָליצע f ( politse )
Zulu: ishalufu 5 or 6
projecting ledge resembling a shelf
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations .
Translations to be checked
References [ edit ] Anagrams [ edit ] Middle English [ edit ] shelf
Alternative form of schelfe 
