shelf

Definitions

General English

noun a flat piece of wood attached to a wall or in a cupboard on which things can be put

General Science

noun a layer of rock or ice which juts out

Banking

noun a horizontal flat surface attached to a wall or in a cupboard on which items for sale are displayed

Construction

Any horizontally mounted board, slab, or other flat-surfaced device upon which objects can be stored, supported, or displayed.

Information & Library Science

noun a horizontal piece of wood or metal attached to a wall, or in a bookcase or cupboard

Origin & History of “shelf”

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.

Nearby Definitions of “shelf”

Contexts for “shelf”

5 definitions in context

Origin & History