shelf
pronunciation
How to pronounce shelf in British English:
UK [ʃelf]
How to pronounce shelf in American English:
US [ʃelf]
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- Noun:
- a support that consists of a horizontal surface for holding objects
- a projecting ridge on a mountain or submerged under water
Word Origin
- shelf
- shelf: [14] Shelf appears to have been borrowed from Middle Low German schelf ‘shelf’. This may have come from the Germanic base *skelf- ‘split’, which also produced Old English scylfe ‘partition’, the word’s underlying meaning therefore being a ‘piece of split wood used for standing things on’. The derivative shelve dates from the 16th century.
- shelf (n.)
- late 14c., from Middle Low German schelf "shelf, set of shelves," or from Old English cognate scylfe, which perhaps meant "shelf, ledge, floor," and scylf "peak, pinnacle," from Proto-Germanic *skelf- "split," possibly from the notion of a split piece of wood (compare Old Norse skjölf "bench"), from PIE root *(s)kel- (1) "to cut, cleave" (see scale (n.1)). Shelf life first recorded 1927. Phrase on the shelf "out of the way, inactive" is attested from 1570s; of unmarried women with no prospects from 1839. Off the shelf "ready-made" is from 1936. Meaning "ledge of rock" is from 1809, perhaps from or influenced by shelf (n.2). Related: Shelves.
- shelf (n.2)
- "sandbank," 1540s, of unknown origin. Related: Shelfy "abounding in sandbanks."
Example
- 1. The enormous wilkins ice shelf is now barely attached to land .
- 2. This cute shelf lets the apples work for you .
- 3. Even shelf stacking would be a better alternative .
- 4. The pair also set up a venture to explore oil and gas deposits beneath russia 's arctic shelf .
- 5. Satellite images show an ice bridge that held a huge antarctic ice shelf in place recently broke apart .