shelve

present singular third person shelves · participle present shelving · participle past shelved · past shelved

1. transitiveTo furnish (a place) with shelves; especially, to furnish (a library, etc.) with bookshelves.

   to shelve a closet or a library

2. transitiveTo place (something) on a shelf; especially, to place or arrange (books) on a bookshelf.

   The library needs volunteers to help shelve books.

   1 more example

   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.

   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

   Antonyms: deshelve, unshelve

3. To place (something) in a certain location, as if on a shelf.
   1. figurativelyslangtransitiveTo take (drugs) by anal or vaginal insertion.

      I love shelving ecstasy!

      2002 June 4, Anthony Hodges, “Drugs Seized by Customs”, in alt.anagrams (Usenet)

      3 more examples

      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.

      2011 June 19, Frances Morton, quoting Emma, “School daze”, in Shayne Currie, editor, The Herald on Sunday, Auckland: New Zealand Media and Entertainment, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 20 Apr 2022

      Some people use Ecstasy using a method known as "shafting" or "shelving" which involves inserting a pill or tablet into the anus.

      2013 February 22, Edward J. Benavidez, “Effects of Ecstasy”, in Getting High: The Effects of Drugs, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris, →ISBN, page 65

      Amphetamines and ATS can be smoked, snorted, injected, or taken orallym, including rubbing on gums. Occasionally, they are taken anally (‘shelving’).

      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

   2. WalesfigurativelyslangtransitiveTo have sex with (someone).

      Synonyms: Formal terms, bed, coit, coitize, dight, enjoy, feague, go in unto

4. To set aside (something), as if on a shelf.
   1. figurativelytransitiveTo postpone or put aside, or entirely cease dealing with (a matter for discussion, a project, etc.).

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

      4 more examples

      [T]he Circumlocution Office, being reminded that my lords had arrived at no decision, shelved the business.

      1855 December – 1857 June, Charles Dickens, “Containing the Whole Science of Government”, in Little Dorrit, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1857, →OCLC, 1st book (Poverty), page 87

      Among the schemes that have been shelved is one for the electrification of the railway between Bergen and Oslo. [Electrification was completed in 1964.]

      1950 April, “The Mountain Section of the Bergen-Oslo Railway”, in The Railway Magazine, London: Tothill Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 223

      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.

      1961 October, “Motive Power Miscellany: Scottish Region”, in Trains Illustrated, London: Ian Allan Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 636

      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.

      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

      Synonyms: mothball, pigeonhole, table, halt, quit, stop

   2. alsofigurativelyreflexivetransitiveTo remove (someone) from active service.

      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.

      1838, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], chapter I, in Alice or The Mysteries […], volume III, London: Saunders and Otley, […], →OCLC, book IX, page 90

5. intransitiveobsoleteTo hang over or project like a shelf; to overhang.

   Her chamber is aloft, far from the ground, / And built ſo ſheluing, that one cannot climbe it / VVithout apparent hazard of his life.

   c. 1590–1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i], page 29, column 2

6. intransitiveTo extend via a series of projecting shelves.

   The beach shelved quickly and he kept underwater as long as he could, swimming with powerful strokes and feeling the soft coolness all over him.

   1953, Ian Fleming, “Tide of Passion”, in Casino Royale, London: Pan Books, published 1955, page 165

plural shelves

1. archaicA rocky shelf or ledge of a cliff, a mountain, etc.

   Above her, on a crag's uneasy shelve, / Upon his elbow rais'd, all prostrate else, / Shadow'd Enceladus; […]

   1818–1819, John Keats, “Hyperion, a Fragment”, in Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems, London: […] [Thomas Davison] for Taylor and Hessey, […], published 1820, →OCLC, pages 170–171

   1 more example

   "This lake," said Bruce, "whose barriers drear / Are precipices sharp and sheer, / Yielding no track for goat or deer, / Save the black shelves we tread,[…]"

   1815, Walter Scott, “Canto Third”, in The Lord of the Isles, a Poem, Edinburgh: […] [F]or Archibald Constable and Co. […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown; by James Ballantyne and Co., […], →OCLC, stanza XVI, page 101

present singular third person shelves · participle present shelving · participle past shelved · past shelved · first person past singular shelved · archaic present second person singular shelvest · past second person singular shelved · archaic past second person singular shelvedst · present singular third person shelves · archaic present singular third person shelveth · past singular third person shelved · past plural shelved · past subjunctive shelved · participle present shelving · participle past shelved

1. UKdialectaltransitiveTo tilt or tip (a cart) to discharge its contents.
2. intransitiveOf land or a surface: to incline, to slope.

   The spirit cometh first, wrapt 'twixt our wings, / Adown the causeway steep, / That shelveth towards the silent shadowy deep, / The grave of things.

   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

   2 more examples

   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, […]

   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

   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.

   1958, Anthony Burgess, chapter 16, in The Enemy in the Blanket (The Malayan Trilogy; 2), London: William Heinemann, published 1979, →ISBN, page 185

3. intransitiveobsoleteTo be in an inclined or sloping position.

plural shelves

1. alternativearchaicAlternative spelling of shelf (“a reef, sandbar, or shoal”).

   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.

   1819 July 15, [Lord Byron], Don Juan, London: […] Thomas Davison, […], →OCLC, canto II, stanza CLXXXI, page 209

   3 more examples

   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.

   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

   [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.

   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

   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.

   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

1. A hamlet in Worthen with Shelve parish, western Shropshire, England (OS grid ref SO3399).