shelf

See also: Shelf

English

Etymology

From Middle English schelfe, probably from Old English scylfe (“deck of a ship”), distantly related to sculpt, carve and shell. Cognate to Dutch schelf.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ʃɛlf/
Audio (file)
Rhymes: -ɛlf

Noun

shelf (plural shelves)

A flat, rigid structure, fixed at right angles to a wall or forming a part of a cabinet, desk etc., and used to support, store or display objects.
- 2012 October 31, David M. Halbfinger, "," New York Times (retrieved 31 October 2012):
  Localities across New Jersey imposed curfews to prevent looting. In Monmouth, Ocean and other counties, people waited for hours for gasoline at the few stations that had electricity. Supermarket shelves were stripped bare.
The capacity of such an object
a shelf of videos
A projecting ledge that resembles such an object.
A reef, shoal or sandbar.

Synonyms

(capacity): shelfful

Related terms

shelve

Hyponyms

bookshelf
chimney shelf
continental shelf
ice shelf
sulfur shelf
sulphur shelf

Derived terms

ice-shelf
off-the-shelf
shelfful
top-shelf

Related terms

off the shelf
on the shelf
shelf ice
shelvy

Descendants

Irish: seilf
Welsh: silff

Translations

structure

Albanian: raft (sq) m
Arabic: رَفّ‎ m (raff)
Armenian: դարակ (hy) (darak)
Azerbaijani: rəf (az)
Bashkir: кәштә (käštä)
Basque: apal
Belarusian: палі́ца f (palíca)
Bengali: তাক (tak)
Breton: estajerenn n
Bulgarian: полица (bg) f (polica), етажерка (bg) f (etažerka)
Burmese: စင် (my) (cang)
Catalan: prestatge (ca) m, estant (ca) m, lleixa (ca) f
Cebuano: estante
Chinese:
Cantonese: 架 (gaa³^-²)
Mandarin: 架子 (zh) (jiàzi)
Min Nan: 架仔 (zh-min-nan) (kè-á)
Czech: police (cs) f
Danish: hylde (da) c
Dutch: schap (nl) n, rek (nl) n, plank (nl) f, legplank (nl) f
Esperanto: breto
Estonian: riiul
Faroese: hill f
Fijian: vata (fj)
Finnish: hylly (fi)
French: rayon (fr) m, étagère (fr) f, tablard (fr) m (Switzerland)
Friulian: scansìe m
Galician: paramio m, paraño m, parañoa f, andel (gl) m, alzadeira f, cunqueiro (gl) m, vaseira f, prateleira f
Georgian: თარო (taro)
German: Regal (de) n
Greek: ράφι (el) n (ráfi)
Gujarati: અભરાઈ f (abharāī)
Hebrew: מַדָּף‎ (he) m (madáf)
Hindi: तख़्ता (taxtā)
Hungarian: polc (hu)
Icelandic: hilla (is) f
Indonesian: rak (id)
Irish: seilf f
Italian: scaffale (it) m, mensola (it) f, ripiano (it) m, palchetto m
Japanese: 棚 (ja) (たな, tana)
Kalmyk: таг (tag)
Kazakh: сөре (kk) (söre)
Khmer: ធ្នើរ (km) (tnəə)
Komi-Permyak: джадж (džadž)
Korean: 선반 (ko) (seonban)
Kyrgyz: полка (polka), текче (ky) (tekçe)
Lao: ຫິ້ງ (hing), ຊັ້ນ (san)
Latvian: plaukts m
Ligurian: rician m
Lingala: motáláká class 3/4
Lithuanian: lentyna f

Macedonian: полица f (polica)
Malagasy: talantalana (mg)
Malay: rak
Maltese: xkaffa f
Manx: skelloo f
Maori: paenga, whata
Mongolian: тавиур (mn) (taviur)
Neapolitan: stìglio m, scanzia f
Norman: ais m (Guernsey, Jersey), êtagéthe f (Jersey)
Northern Sami: hildu
Norwegian:
Bokmål: hylle (no) m or f
Nynorsk: hylle f
Persian: رف‎ (fa) (raf)
Polish: półka (pl) f, regał (pl) m
Portuguese: prateleira (pt) f, estante (pt) f
Romanian: poliță (ro) f, raft (ro) n
Russian: по́лка (ru) f (pólka), полок (ru) m (polok)
Scottish Gaelic: sgeilp f
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: полица f
Roman: polica (sh) f
Sicilian: scaffa (scn) f
Slovak: polica f
Slovene: polica (sl) f
Sorbian:
Lower Sorbian: regal m, pólica f
Spanish: estante m, balda (es) f, anaquel (es) m
Swahili: rafu class 9/10
Swedish: hylla (sv) c
Tajik: раф (raf)
Tamil: அடுக்கம் (ta) (aṭukkam), அடுக்கு (ta) (aṭukku)
Tatar: киштә (tt) (kiştä)
Telugu: అర (te) (ara)
Thai: หิ้ง (th) (hîng)
Tibetan: བང་ཁྲི (bang khri)
Turkish: sergen (tr), raf (tr)
Turkmen: tekje
Udmurt: ӝажы (džažy)
Ukrainian: поли́ця f (polýcja)
Urdu: تخته‎ (taxta)
Uyghur: جازا‎ (jaza)
Uzbek: polka (uz), tokcha (uz)
Venetian: scansìa f
Vietnamese: giá sách (bookshelf), giá (vi)
Vilamovian: faht n, faocht n
Walloon: axhale f, axhlete (wa) f
Welsh: silff (cy) f, silffoedd (cy) f pl
Westrobothnian: hill f
Yiddish: פּאָליצע‎ f (politse)
Zulu: ishalufu class 5/6

capacity

Dutch: schap (nl) n, rek (nl) n
French: étagère (fr) f, rayonnage (fr) m
Galician: paramio m, paraño m, parañoa f, andel (gl) m, alzadeira f, cunqueiro (gl) m, vaseira f, prateleira f

Portuguese: prateleira (pt) f, estante (pt) f
Spanish: estantería (es) f
Walloon: håynaedje (wa) m

projecting ledge resembling a shelf

Dutch: schap (nl) n
Scots: bink

Scottish Gaelic: sgeilp f

reef, shoal, sandbar

Armenian: շելֆ (hy) (šelf)
Bulgarian: шелф m (šelf)
Galician: recife m, pedrido m, brica f, ariño m, sirte m, baixío m
German: Schelf m
Russian: шельф (ru) m (šelʹf)

Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: пличина f, шелф m
Roman: pličina (sh) f, šelf (sh) m
Spanish: arrecife (es) m, banco (es) m, cordón (es) m, bajío m

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

Translations to be checked

Italian: ^{(please verify)} asse (it)

Welsh: ^{(please verify)} silff (cy)

References

shelf on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

Fehls, flesh

Middle English

Noun

shelf

Alternative form of schelfe