shelves
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shelves
(shĕlvz)n.
Plural of shelf.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
shelves
(ʃɛlvz)n
the plural of shelf
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014
shelf
(ʃɛlf)n., pl. shelves (shelvz).
1. a thin slab of wood, metal, etc., fixed horizontally to a wall or in a frame, for supporting objects.
2. the contents of this: a shelf of books.
3. a surface or projection resembling this; ledge.
4.
Idioms: a. a sandbank or submerged extent of rock in the sea or river.
b. the bedrock underlying an alluvial deposit or the like.
1. off the shelf, readily available from merchandise in stock.
2. on the shelf,
a. put aside temporarily; postponed.
b. inactive; useless.
[1350–1400; Middle English; Old English scylfe; akin to Middle Low German schelf shelf, Old Norse -skjalf bench]
shelf′like`, adj.
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.