shelf

Pluralshelves, shelfs

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A flat board fixed to a wall or inside a cabinet, used to hold or store things.

   Like a small ledge where you can rest your cups and plates.

   She put the books back on the shelf.

   There were three shelves full of toys in his room.

   Note
2. 2
   nouncountable

   A flat ledge of rock or land that sticks out, looking like a shelf.

   Like a step of rock sticking out from a cliff.

   The hikers stopped to rest on a wide shelf of rock partway up the mountain.

   Seabirds nested along a narrow shelf jutting out over the water.

   Similarledge, terrace

   Note
3. 3
   noununcountable

   The amount of room a shelf has for holding things.

   Like how much space a backpack has for your books.

   There isn't enough shelf in the closet for all our shoes.

   We need more shelf to store the new dishes.

   Similarstorage, space

   Note
4. 4
   nouncountable

   A ridge of rock or sand under shallow water that ships can hit.

   Like a low wall of sand hiding just under the water.

   The ship ran aground on a hidden shelf just off the coast.

   Sailors marked the shelf on their charts to avoid the shallows.

   Similarreef, shoal, sandbar, bank

   Note
5. 5
   verb

   Another way to write shelve. Shelve is the standard spelling, and many readers see shelf as a mistake.

   The team chose to shelf the plan for now.

   Please shelf those papers until we need them.

   Note
6. 6
   nouncountable

   A place in a code storage system where set-aside changes are kept.

   He saved his unfinished work to the shelf before logging off.

   Each developer on the team has a shelf on the server for code they are not ready to share yet.

   Note

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