shelve
UK/ʃɛlv/
shelve verb: to furnish (a place) with shelves; especially, to furnish (a library, etc.) with bookshelves. Also the alternative spelling of shelf.
Verb (1)
shelve (third-person singular simple present shelves, present participle shelving, simple past and past participle shelved)
- To furnish (a place) with shelves; especially, to furnish (a library, etc.) with bookshelves.
- to shelve a closet or a library
- To place (something) on a shelf; especially, to place or arrange (books) on a bookshelf.
- The library needs volunteers to help shelve books.
- 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
- To take (drugs) by anal or vaginal insertion.
- I love shelving ecstasy!2002 June 4, Anthony Hodges, “Drugs Seized by Customs”, in alt.anagrams (Usenet)
- 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...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...
- To have sex with (someone).
- Synonyms:
- Formal terms, bed, coit, coitize, dight, enjoy, feague, go in unto, go to bed with, have
- To 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.
- [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
- To 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
- To 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...
- To 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
Noun
shelve (plural shelves)
- A rocky shelf or ledge of a cliff, a mountain, etc.
- "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....
- 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
Verb (2)
shelve (third-person singular simple present shelves, present participle shelving, simple past and past participle shelved)
- To tilt or tip (a cart) to discharge its contents.
- Of 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
- 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
- To be in an inclined or sloping position.
Proper noun capitalized: Shelve
Shelve
- A hamlet in Worthen with Shelve parish, western Shropshire, England (OS grid ref SO3399).
Also used as
shelve is also the alternative spelling of shelf.
Examples of shelve in a sentence
- It's when you shelve a pill up your bum.2011 June 19, Frances Morton, quoting Emma, “School daze”, in Shayne Currie, editor, The Herald on Sunday, Auckland: New Zealand Media and...
- 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:
- 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.2005, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, David Kessler, “The Inner World of Grief”, in On Grief and Grieving: Finding the Meaning of Grief through the...
Synonyms of shelve
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
Forms of shelve
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | shelves |
| present participle | shelving |
| past participle | shelved |
| past | shelved |
| second-person singular present (archaic) | shelvest |
| second-person singular past (archaic) | shelvedst |
| third-person singular present (archaic) | shelveth |
| Noun | |
| plural | shelves |
Origin of shelve
The verb is a back-formation from shelves, the plural of shelf (“flat, rigid structure, fixed at right angles to a wall or forming a part of a cabinet, desk, etc., and used to display, store, or support objects”). The noun is derived from etymology 1, verb sense 2 (“(obsolete) to hang over or project like a shelf”).
From Late Middle English shelven (“to separate (someone or something) from another thing, keep away”); further etymology uncertain, possibly: * from shelf, shelfe (“shelf; cabinet, cupboard; grassy bank”) (though this is doubted by the Oxford English Dictionary); or * related to West Frisian skelf (“not level or straight, oblique”).
Treated as a singular form of shelves, the plural of shelf (“reef; sandbar; shoal”).
Words formed from shelve
Phrases with shelve
Words that rhyme with shelve
Questions about shelve
- What does shelve mean?
- Shelve means to furnish (a place) with shelves; especially, to furnish (a library, etc.) with bookshelves.
- How do you use shelve in a sentence?
- It's when you shelve a pill up your bum.
- What part of speech is shelve?
- Shelve can be a verb, a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce shelve?
- Shelve is pronounced /ʃɛlv/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of shelve?
- The past tense of shelve is shelved.
Words near shelve in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: shelve (page history and authors); Shelve (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-shelve.ogg.
Cite this entry: “shelve.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/shelve. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.