shelf

English

Etymology

Probably from Old English scylfe (“deck of a ship”), distantly related to sculpt, carve and shell. Cognate to Dutch schelf.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʃɛlf/
• Rhymes: -ɛlf

Noun

shelf (plural shelves)

1. 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.
   • 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.

2. The capacity of such an object

   a shelf of videos

3. A projecting ledge that resembles such an object.
4. A reef, shoal or sandbar.

Synonyms

• (capacity): shelfful

Related terms

• shelve

Hyponyms

Hyponyms of shelf

• bookshelf
• chimney shelf

• continental shelf
• ice shelf

• sulfur shelf

• sulphur shelf

Derived terms

Terms derived from shelf

• ice-shelf

• off-the-shelf

• shelfful

• top-shelf

Related terms

Related terms

• off the shelf

• on the shelf

• shelf ice

• shelvy

Descendants

• Irish: seilf
• Welsh: silff

Translations

structure

• Albanian: raft (sq) m
• Arabic: رَفّ‏‎ m (raff)
• Armenian: դարակ (hy) (darak)
• Azeri: rəf (az)
• Bashkir: кәштә (käštä)
• Basque: apal
• Belarusian: палі́ца f (palíca)
• Bengali: তাক (tak)
• Breton: estajerenn
• Bulgarian: полица (bg) f (polica)
• Burmese: စင် (my) (cang)
• Catalan: prestatge (ca) m, estant (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: ^{(please verify)} 架 (gaa^3-2)

  Mandarin: 架子 (zh) (jiàzi)

  Min Nan: 骨架 (zh-min-nan) (kut-kè), 派頭 (phài-thâu)

• Czech: police (cs) f
• Danish: hylde (da) c
• Dutch: schap (nl) n, rek (nl) n, plank (nl) f, legplank f
• Esperanto: breto
• Estonian: riiul
• Faroese: hill f
• Finnish: hylly (fi)
• French: rayon (fr) m, étagère (fr) f, tablard (fr) m (Switzerland)
• Galician: estante m, andel (gl) m
• Georgian: თარო (taro)
• German: Regal (de) n
• Greek: ράφι (el) n (ráfi)
• Gujarati: અભરાઈ (abhrāī)
• Hebrew: מַדָּף‏‎ (he) m (madáf)
• Hindi: तख़्ता (taxtā)
• Hungarian: polc (hu)
• Icelandic: hilla (is) f
• Indonesian: rak (id)
• Irish: seilf f
• Italian: scaffale (it), mensola (it) f, ripiano (it) m
• Japanese: 棚 (ja) (たな, tana)
• Kalmyk: таг (tag)
• Kazakh: сөре (kk) (söre)
• Khmer: ធ្នើរ (km) (tnəə)
• Korean: 선반 (ko) (seonban)
• Kyrgyz: полка (polka), текче (ky) (tekçe)

• Lao: ຫິ້ງ (hing), ຊັ້ນ (san)
• Latvian: plaukts m
• Lithuanian: lentyna f
• Macedonian: полица f (polica)
• Malay: rak
• Maltese: xkaffa f
• Maori: paenga, whata
• Mongolian: тавиур (mn) (taviur)
• Neapolitan: stìglio
• Norman: ais m
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: hylle (no) m, f

  Nynorsk: hylle f

• Persian: رف‏‎ (fa) (raf)
• Polish: półka (pl) f
• Portuguese: prateleira (pt) f, estante (pt)
• Romanian: poliță (ro) f, raft (ro) n
• Russian: по́лка (ru) f (pólka)
• Scottish Gaelic: sgeilp f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: полица f

  Roman: polica (sh) f

• Slovak: polica f
• Slovene: polica (sl) f
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: regal m, pólica f

• Spanish: estante m, balda (es) f, anaquel (es) m
• Swedish: hylla (sv)
• Tajik: раф (raf)
• Tatar: киштә (tt) (kiştä)
• Telugu: అర (te) (ara)
• Thai: หิ้ง (th) (hîng)
• Turkish: raf (tr), sergen (tr)
• Turkmen: tekje
• Ukrainian: поли́ця f (polýcja)
• Urdu: تخته‏‎ (taxta)
• Uzbek: polka (uz), tokcha (uz)
• Vietnamese: giá sách (bookshelf)
• Walloon: axhale f, axhlete (wa) f
• Welsh: silff (cy) f
• Yiddish: פּאָליצע‏‎ f (politse)

capacity

• Dutch: schap (nl) n, rek (nl) n
• French: étagère (fr) f, rayonnage (fr) m
• Portuguese: prateleira (pt) f, estante (pt) f

• Spanish: estantería (es) f
• Walloon: håynaedje (wa) m

projecting ledge resembling a shelf

• Dutch: schap (nl) n
• Scots: bink

• Scottish Gaelic: sgeilp f

reef, shoal, sandbar

• Armenian: շելֆ (šelf)
• Bulgarian: шелф m (šelf)
• German: Schelf m
• Russian: шельф (ru) m (šelʹf)

• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: пличина f, шелф m

  Roman: pličina (sh) f, šelf (sh) m

• Spanish: arrecife (es) m, banco (es) m, cordón (es) m

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

• Italian: ^{(please verify)} asse

• Welsh: ^{(please verify)} silff

Anagrams

• Fehls, flesh