shelves

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of shelf.

   Dust had settled on the highest shelves in the study.

   The store arranges its bestsellers on the shelves nearest the entrance.

   Note

   Shelf trades its f for a v before the plural ending, the same shift that turns leaf into leaves and wolf into wolves. The result is one spelling doing several jobs. It is also the verb for setting aside and the plural of an old noun, shelve. Context sorts them quickly: dusty shelves are furniture, but a committee that shelves a proposal is putting it off.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of shelve.

   The clerk shelves each delivery the moment it arrives.

   Whenever funding dries up, the board shelves its most ambitious projects.

   Note

   Here the form is a verb agreeing with a singular subject: the clerk shelves the books, the board shelves the plan. Both the literal act of putting things on a shelf and the figurative act of setting a project aside take a direct object. The figurative use also covers removing someone from active service. Some slang uses are sexual or drug-related, so context matters, but "shelves a proposal" stays safe.

3. 3
   nounarchaic

   Plural of shelve.

   Note

   An old-fashioned noun lies behind this plural. Shelve once meant a rocky ledge on a cliff or mountain, and it was also an earlier spelling of shelf in the sense of a reef, sandbar or shoal. Modern readers take rock shelves along a coast as the plural of shelf, which means the same thing. For the singular, write shelf, because shelve as a noun now sounds archaic.

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