shelve

See also: Shelve

English

Etymology

Back-formation from shelves.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ʃɛlv/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛlv

Verb

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

1. (transitive) To place on a shelf.

   The library needs volunteers to help shelve books.

2. (transitive) To set aside; to quit or postpone.

   They shelved the entire project when they heard how much it would cost.

   • 1961 October, “Motive Power Miscellany: Scottish Region”, in Trains Illustrated, 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, On Grief and Grieving, →ISBN, page 102:

     When we shelve our pain, it doesn't go away. Rather, it festers in a myriad of ways.

3. To furnish with shelves.

   to shelve a closet or a library

4. (slang) To take (drugs) by anal or vaginal insertion.
   • 2002 June 4, Anthony Hodges, “Drugs seized by Customs (WARNING)”, in alt.anagrams (Usenet):

     I love shelving ecstasy!

   • 2011 June 19, “School daze”, in The New Zealand Herald:

     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.

   • 2013, Edward J. Benavidez, Getting High: The Effects of Drugs, →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, John B. Saunders, Noeline C. Latt, & E. Jane Marshall, Addiction Medicine, →ISBN, page 44:

     Occasionally, they are taken anally ('shelving').

5. (Wales, slang) To have sex with.
6. (intransitive) To slope; to incline; to form into shelves.
   • 1958, Anthony Burgess, The Enemy in the Blanket (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 372:

     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.

Synonyms

• (set aside): pigeonhole, table
• (have sex with): coitize, go to bed with, sleep with; see also Thesaurus:copulate with

Translations

to place on a shelf

• Bulgarian: слагам на рафт (slagam na raft)
• Danish: sætte på hylden
• Finnish: panna hyllyyn
• Italian: archiviare (it)
• Maori: whata, whakawhata
• Polish: odkładać na półkę
• Portuguese: arquivar (pt)
• Swahili: daka (sw)

to set aside, quit, or halt

• Bulgarian: отлагам (bg) (otlagam), слагам на трупчета (slagam na trupčeta)
• Danish: skrinlægge
• Finnish: hyllyttää (fi)
• French: suspendre (fr)
• Italian: accantonare (it), riporre (it)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: skrinlegge, henlegge (no)

• Polish: odkładać na półkę
• Russian: класть на полку (klastʹ na polku)
• Spanish: dar carpetazo, cajonear, engavetar (es)
• Swedish: skrinlägga (sv)

Noun

shelve (plural shelves)

1. A rocky ledge or shelf.
   • 1819, Lord Byron, Don Juan, II.181:

     And all was stillness, save the sea-bird's cry, / And dolphin's leap, and little billow crossed / By some low rock or shelve, that made it fret / Against the boundary it scarcely wet.

References

• “shelve”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Anagrams

• helves