| 释义 |
▪ I. shelf, n.1|ʃɛlf|
Pl. shelves |ʃɛlvz|. Forms: 5 schelf(f)e, 5–7 shelfe, 7 shealfe, 5– shelf; pl. 4– shelves, (5 schelves, -ys, 6 sylwes); 5 schelfes, 5–7 shelfes, 5–8 shelfs.
[app. ad. (M)LG. schelf shelf, set of shelves (whence also the northern skelf), cogn. w. OE. scylfe (of uncertain meaning) ? partition or compartment, MDu. schelve, (and mod.Du.) schelf stack, rick (of hay, etc.), and OE. scylf (also stán-scylf) rugged rock, crag, pinnacle; ? f. root skelf- to split.]
I.
1. a. A slab of wood (or other material) fixed in a horizontal position to a wall, or in a frame, to hold books, vessels, ornaments, etc.; one of the transverse boards in a bookcase, cabinet, or the like.
c1386Chaucer Miller's T. 25 His Augrym stones layen faire a part On shelues [v.r. schelfes] couched at his beddes heed. 1422Engl. Misc. (Surtees) 16 Yat the lede pype and the shelfs be the wyfe's of Symond of Stele. 1485Rec. St. Mary at Hill (1904) 28 In the Bottrye iiij schelves. 1505in Eng. Gilds (1870) 327 Yn the spence a tabell planke and ij sylwes. 1566Engl. Ch. Furniture (Peacock 1866) 65 A shelf for to set dishes on. 1615Chapman Odyss. ix. 313 Shelues [ταρσοί] with cheeses heapt. 1719De Foe Crusoe i. 135, I was full two and forty Days making me a Board for a long Shelf. 1727Swift Further Acc. E. Curll Wks. 1755 III. i. 161 Have not I clothed you in double-royal, lodged you handsomely on decent shelves? 1765J. Brown Chr. Jrnl. 252 Here is the famed surgeon's shop: no doubt his shelfs are planted with pots, vials, and boxes full of useful medicine. 1842Tennyson Talking Oak 142 She left the novel half-uncut Upon the rosewood shelf. 1856Delamer Fl. Gard. (1861) 4 A dry airy shelf is a good place for keeping them [sc. bulbs]. 1898G. B. Shaw You never can tell iii. Stage direct., The bamboo tea table, with folding shelves.
b. The gradine of an altar.
1496–7Rec. St. Mary at Hill (1904) 30 A frontell for the schelffe standyng on the alter.
c. transf. A shelf with reference to its contents; the contents of a shelf (esp. of books).
1732Berkeley Alciphr. ii. §24 You may confute a whole shelf of schoolmen. 1799Monthly Rev. XXX. 287 This performance cannot be placed on the same shelf with that of Barthelemy. 1818Scott Hrt. Midl. xxxi, His works had no place on David Deans's shelf of divinity. 1825Macaulay Ess., Milton (1897) 2 A few more days, and this essay will follow the Defensio Populi to the dust and silence of the upper shelf. 1876Lowell Ode 4th July iv. ii, Herein they were great Beyond the incredulous lawgivers of yore, And wiser than the wisdom of the shelf.
d. fig. phrases. on the shelf: (a) On one side, out of the way, in a position or state of inactivity or uselessness; esp. to lay (put, etc.) on the shelf, also † to set on shelf.
1575Gascoigne Kenelworth Wks. 1910 II. 120 Jove in heaven would smile to see Diana set on shelfe. 1815Wellington in Gurw. Desp. (1838) XII. 379 Alava would then be laid upon the shelf, if he had not his situation here to return to. 1816‘Quiz’ Grand Master viii. 8 He's ever since been on the shelf. 1831Croker in Boswell's Johnson an. 1740 note, His friend General Oglethorpe, who, after acquittal by a court-martial, was (to use a vulgar but expressive phrase) put upon the shelf. 1884L. J. Jennings Croker Papers I. vi. 170 The question of Parliamentary Reform could not be perpetually kept upon the shelf. 1893B. Harraden Ships that pass i. vii, Because your career has been checked, and because you have been put on the shelf.
(b) Of women: Without prospects of marrying.
1839Hood I'm not a single Man v, Mamma, who praises her own self, Instead of Jane or Ann, And lays ‘her girls’ upon the shelf. 1847Halliwell, On the shelf, said of ladies when too old to get married. 1893Academy 25 Nov. 460/3 A worn-out flirt who has run through her chances in the matrimonial market and who is..on the shelf.
(c) slang. In pawn.
1859Hotten's Slang Dict., On the shelf, pawned.
e. off the shelf: from a supply of ready-made goods. Also (with hyphens) as adj. phr.
1936Industr. & Engin. Chem. Feb. 150/2 The individual customer must generally have his material fabricated to his order and cannot obtain material [aluminium] ‘off the shelf’. 1958Engineering 11 Apr. 455/2 Using sets built to a standard pattern which would be available ‘off the shelf’ and made up of interchangeable parts. 1962J. Glenn in Into Orbit 37 They had to use ‘off-the-shelf’ items in order to save time. 1978Nature 26 Oct. 784/1 As CAMAC equipment is often sold as individual products to system builders, items are often available either ‘off the shelf’.
†2. A cupboard or cabinet. Obs.
c1440Promp. Parv. 445/1 Schelfe, epiaster, epilocarium, armarium. 1570Levins Manip. 58/16 A shelfe, cortinale.
3. a. Printing. = till n.1 3.
1706Phillips (ed. Kersey), Shelf,..the Till of a Printing-Press. 1808C. Stower Printer's Gram. 328 The Till or Shelf. 1834–6Encycl. Metrop. (1845) VIII. 774 The third bar D, called the shelf or till, is intended to guide and keep steady..the hose, which contains the spindle and screw.
b. Shipbuilding. A timber on the inner side of the frame to support the deck-beams.
1834–6Encycl. Metrop. (1845) VI. 396/2 Under the beams of the deck, perpendicularly over the builge-strake, was fixed on its edge a strake of fir along the whole length of the vessel six inches thick, with a score one inch deep for the beams, to which it was bolted, and was called the longitudinal shelf. 1874Thearle Naval Archit. 35 The several pieces composing the shelf are connected with vertical flat scarphs.
c. The charging-bed of a furnace.
1879Spons' Encycl. Manuf. I. 290 The hopper in which the charge of sulphate, coal, and chalk is contained, is built into the arch over the centre of the ‘shelf’.
4. A police informer. Austral. slang.
1926J. Doone Timely Tips for New Australians (Gloss.), Shelf, a slang word denoting an informer. 1952People (Austral.) 3 Dec. 8/2 The jail authorities knew such trafficking went on and often set traps for the warders through the good offices of shelfs or trusties (prisoners who were informers).
II. Senses influenced by shelf n.2
5. a. A ledge, platform, or terrace of land, rock, etc.
1809J. Barlow Columb. iii. 170 Torrents of molten rocks..Lead o'er the shelves of ice their fiery tide. 1818Scott Hrt. Midl. l, A huge fragment of stone, which, having fallen from the cliffs above, had..jammed so as to serve for a sloping roof to the farther part of the broad shelf or platform on which they stood. 1833Lyell Princ. Geol. III. 131 These roads or shelves occur in a valley six or seven miles wide. 1872Black Adv. Phaeton xxiv, Scrambling up shelves of loose earth and slate.
b. continental shelf, the relatively shallow belt of sea-bottom bordering a continental mass, the outer edge of which sinks rapidly to the deep ocean-floor. Also unqualified (freq. attrib.).
1892H. R. Mill Realm of Nat. xi. 201 In many cases it is possible that the continental shelf is the end of a low plain submerged by subsidence; in others a low plain may be an upheaved continental shelf. 1905Times 29 Mar. 10/6 The coast platform and Continental shelf lying off the Norwegian coast. 1913Jrnl. Geol. XXI. 525 The mode of formation keeps the face of the shelf within a certain distance from the sea-surface. Ibid., The shelf zone is..a biologic horizon of the first importance. 1934C. R. Longwell et al. Outl. Physical Geol. vii. 125 The shelf beyond the long-quiescent Atlantic coast of North America is 60 to 80 miles wide off the Carolinas. 1964Oceanogr. & Marine Biol. II. 61 The temperature minimum at 150m may be formed, in part, by mixing of winter Bering Sea water with shelf water. 1978Friedman & Sanders Princ. Sedimentol. xii. 360/2 (caption) Shelf lagoon between margin of a continental block and a reef tract that is situated at the edge of the continental mass.
6. Mining and Geol. Bed-rock: see quots.
1671Phil. Trans. VI. 2096 The uppermost surface of Mineral Veins or hoads..which is termed by the Miners, the Shelf, Fast Countrey or Ground that was never moved in the Flood. 1839H. T. De la Beche Rep. Geol. Cornwall, etc. xiii. 398 We find these pebbles at the base of the whole, resting upon the subjacent rock, commonly termed the shelf. 1852Nicolay in Man. Geog. Sci. i. 420 Low rocks lying horizontally, especially when laminated, are called Shelves. 1880D. C. Davies Metallif. Min. 421 Shelf, the uppermost broken surface of the rock under driftal matter.
III. 7. attrib. and Comb., as † shelf-board, shelf-bracket, shelf-load, shelf-occupant, shelf-press, shelf-room, shelf-space; shelf-like adj.; shelf appeal, the attractiveness to a customer of packaged goods displayed in a shop; shelf back U.S., the spine of a book; shelf-catalogue, a short-title catalogue of the books in a library arranged according to their location on the shelves and consequently according to their class or subject; shelf cod, cod found in inshore waters above the continental shelf; shelf ice [tr. G. schelfeis (O. Nordenskjöld 1908, in Zeitschr. der Ges. für Erdkunde zu Berlin XLIII. 618, following suggestion of A. Penck)], ice which forms a thick level layer on water (usu. the sea) but is attached to land; shelf life, the length of time that a commodity may be stored without becoming unfit for use or consumption; shelf-list = shelf catalogue; so shelf-lister, one who compiles shelf-lists; shelf-mark = press-mark; hence shelf-mark v., shelf-marking; shelf paper, paper used for lining shelves; shelf-piece = sense 3 b; shelf-plate, an iron shelf below the water-line of an armoured ship to support the armour-plate and its backing; shelf sea, an expanse of sea overlying continental shelf.
1933Shelf Appeal July 3 (heading) *Shelf Appeal. A monthly publication devoted to the planning, designing, manufacturing & display of the package. 1963B.S.I. News Apr. 20/1 The ‘shelf-appeal’ pack designed to catch the eye of the ordinary shopper. 1964Times Rev. Industry Feb. 23/1 With the post-war swing to more branded goods, self-service, enhanced hygiene and the need for ‘shelf-appeal’, the demand for more and better packaging has expanded fast.
1925J. A. Holden Bookman's Gloss. 97 *Shelf-back, the back of a book, on which the title is lettered. 1931Publishers' Weekly 9 May 2322 It..is strongly bound and has the name of the periodical stamped in gold on cover and shelfback. 1960G. A. Glaister Gloss. Book 375/1 Shelf back, the spine of a book.
1548MS. Acc. St. John's Hosp., Canterb., In the kechynne a *shelf bourde.
1859F. S. Cooper Ironmongers' Catal. 10 *Shelf Brackets.
1882H. Bradshaw in Trans. Libr. Assoc. (1884) 233 He enters the title briefly in the *shelf-catalogue (or class-catalogue as we call it in Cambridge).
1935L. Luard Conquering Seas 37 Cod... *Shelf Cod. 1976Eastern Even. News (Norwich) 9 Dec. 12/5 Grimsby fish. Poor supply, good demand; six boats landed 1917 kit. Shelf cod {pstlg}4 to {pstlg}5.
1910Geogr. Jrnl. XXXV. 726 To this ice formed in situ out of snow accumulations in the sea Nordenskiöld gives the name ‘*shelf-ice’. 1938Ibid. XCI. 511 Of all the glacial features in this region, perhaps the greatest interest attaches to the shelf-ice filling King George VI Sound. 1977New Yorker 20 June 55/1 The river's edges are lined with ice that is stationary—‘shelf ice’, ‘shore ice’, the first to freeze at the start of winter and the last to go in spring.
1927Manufacturing Confectioner Jan. 12 (heading) What is the *shelf life of your hard candy? 1933R. A. W. Watt et al. Applications of Cathode Ray Oscillograph in Radio Res. i. 27 The batteries may..be of very small size; ‘shelf-life’ and loss through casual leakage..are more important than their actual load current. 1940Austral. Jrnl. Dentistry XLIV. 39 Either copper or copper and zinc must be present in the alloy if it is to possess a reasonable ‘shelf life’. 1956Visible Packaging of Flour Confectionery (British Cellophane Ltd.) 3 For small fancy cakes a moistureproof heat-sealing wrap..should give a shelf-life of several days. 1969Observer 26 Jan. 5/5 The shelf-life of donated blood is about 21 days. 1980D. Francis Reflex viii. 99 Some photographic chemicals lose their power with age. Shelf life, and so on.
1851H. Melville Moby Dick I. iii. 18 On one side stood a long, low, *shelf-like table covered with cracked glass cases, filled with dusty rarities. 1962Science Survey XI. 178 The inner membrane whose shelf-like folds protrude into the interior of the organelle.
1910A. E. Bostwick Amer. Public Library 171 The name ‘*shelf list’ is sometimes improperly given to a class list. 1979Amer. N. & Q. June 166/2 Each volume of the shelflist is in four parts, viz., the classification schedule, the shelflist proper (showing shelf mark, author, title, place of publication, and date), the same items (excluding serials) in chronological order, and an author and title index.
1927W. W. Bishop Pract. Handbk. Mod. Libr. Catal. 21 The catalog room..should be..on the same floor with the order clerks, classifiers and *shelf-listers.
1950G. Greene in Dickens's Oliver Twist p. vii, We must forget that long *shelf-load of books. 1980Jrnl. R. Soc. Arts Mar. 177/2 Spend how much money you will, apply ten shelf loads of regulations, there is no way of promising that there is no risk of failure.
1842Row's Hist. Kirk (Maitl. Cl.) Introd. Notice 56 A very carefully written MS... Old *shelf mark, W, 6, 30. 1889H. B. Wheatley How to Catalogue 233 Printed books are moved and change their shelf-marks.
1897Macray in Burnet Own Time Pref. 9 Two folio volumes, now *shelf-marked as ‘Bodl. Add. D. 18, 19’.
1842Row's Hist. Kirk (Maitl. Cl.) Introd. Notice 59 Another MS... The old *shelf-marking A. 6, 7.
1878Browning Poets Croisic i. lvi, That and my other rare *shelf-occupants.
1895Montgomery Ward Catal. 113/3 *Shelf Paper, pinked in fancy designs, each sheet 8½ inches wide, 33 inches long. 1968Listener 27 June 841/1 Kerouac types On the Road on a 120-foot roll of shelf paper but cannot get it published.
1830Hedderwick Mar. Archit. 286 A stringer or *shelf-piece bolted edge⁓ways to the clamp. 1860H. Stuart Seaman's Catech. 69 What do the beams rest upon? The shelf pieces, which extend all round the ship.
1869E. J. Reed Shipbuild. ii. 20 Armour *shelf-plates like those of the ‘Warrior’, which are immense angle-irons, in fact.
1898Crockett Stand. Bearer v, The little *shelf-press rudely constructed in the wall of four blocks of stone split into faces.
1882H. Bradshaw in Trans. Libr. Assoc. (1884) 237 They [sc. volumes of periodical publications] await better times, when we can afford them proper *shelf-room. 1893Newton Dict. Birds s.v. Kittiwake, It seems never to breed but on the side of a cliff, and there shelf-room is all it needs.
1913T. C. Chamberlin in Jrnl. Geol. XXI. 523 The waters that rest upon these sea-shelves may be known conveniently as *shelf-seas. 1969Bennison & Wright Geol. Hist. Brit. Isles ii. 21 Sediments laid down in deeper water..have a quite different faunal content from the shelf-sea deposits.
1954W. K. Hancock Country & Calling iii. 95 It became my fate to struggle with a brute documentary mass that has to be measured in miles of *shelf-space. 1978J. Irving World according to Garp ii. 28 Her books{ddd}outgrew the shelf space.
▪ II. shelf, n.2|ʃɛlf|
[Of obscure origin.
The identity of sense with shelp1 (recorded a century earlier) suggests that the two words may be in some way etymologically connected. The unexplained variation between p and f seems to have a parallel in the OE. scylf and scylp, both used to gloss scopulus and murex sharp rock, and in scalp n.2 bed of oysters (cf. 2 below), which has the variants scalfe, scalph. It is not impossible that the word may descend from the OE. scylf, scylp, in some unrecorded sense. Some of the later uses show influence from shelf n.1]
1. A sandbank in the sea or river rendering the water shallow and dangerous. Also loosely applied to a submerged ledge of rock.
Very common till c 1750. See also shelve n.1
1545Elyot Dict., Syrtes, quycke sandes or shelfes [ed. 1538 shelpes] in the water made by the dryfte of sande or grauell. 1571Act 13 Eliz. c. 18 §5 The Shyriffes..shall..after that the said newe Cut shalbe made..cause the same..to be..clensed of all the Shelfes and Shallowes. 1577–87Holinshed Chron. III. 1129/1 A place by the sea side, all of hard stone and pibble, called in those parts [sc. Suffolk] a shelfe. 1617Moryson Itin. iii. 138 Before the Rode of Margat lie the dangerous shelfes or flats of sand, whereof the greatest is called Goodwin sand. 1651Davenant Gondibert Pref. 19 Coasting Mapps, where the Shelves and Rocks are describ'd as well as the safe Channell. 1691T. H[ale] Acc. New Invent. p. liv, Deepening the River of Thames, and removing Shelfes therein. 1762Falconer Shipwr. iii. 329 A shore where shelves and hidden rocks abound. 1791Selby Bridge Act 3 To remove any shelves, or other obstructions, in the said river. 1802Brooke's Gazetteer (ed. 12) s.v. Ladoga, Quicksands, which..cause several shelves which often prove fatal to the flat-bottomed vessels of the Russians. 1878Browning La Saisiaz 34 The every way external stream that now through shoal and shelf Floats it onward.
b. fig. and in fig. context.
1560J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. Pref. 4 b, Whan I som⁓time doubted, & sticked fast on the rockes & shelves. 1574Hellowes Gueuara's Fam. Ep. (1577) 186 There is in loue after it is begon, infinite shelues, immeasurable sloughes, daungerous rockes. 1604Earl Stirling Croesus ii. ii, This self-conceit is a most dangerous shelfe. 1612Sir W. Alexander Elegie Death Pr. Henrie 9 Though generall be the losse, one shelfe confounding quyte, The King's chiefe joy, the kingdomes hope, and all the worlds delight. 1616R. C. Times' Whistle (1871) 43 Till i' th' end his pelfe Shipwracks his soule vpon hels rocky shelfe. 1652Benlowes Theoph. Pref., To divert thee therefore from such Shelves of indiscreet Vice. 1784Cowper Tiroc. 269 Yes—ye are conscious; and on all the shelves Your pupils strike upon, have struck yourselves.
†2. shelves of margarites, shelves of oysters. (Cf. scalp n.2)
1590Greene Fr. Bacon (1630) 2 Her teeth are shelues of precious Margarites, Richly enclosed with ruddie curroll cleues. 1594― & Lodge Looking Gl. i. i. 100 I'll fetch from Albia shelves of margarites. 1594Nashe Terrors Nt. G 2 b, Great glaring eyes that had whole shelues of Kentish oysters in them.
3. Comb. † shelf-spoiled, rendered dangerous by shoals.
1627May Lucan, Pharsalia ix. Q 8, A shelfe-spoil'd sea.
▪ III. shelf, n.3 dial. (Devon and Cornwall.)
Also shilf.
[? a use of shelf n.1 (cf. sense 5).]
(See quots.)
[1602–1778: ? Implied in shelfy a.3] 1849Ecclesiologist IX. 288 note, Shilf means broken slate, in small pieces, such as is used for mending roads in parts of Cornwall. 1891Hartland Gloss., Shelf, soft slaty rock.
▪ IV. shelf, v.1 Obs.—1|ʃɛlf|
[Origin and meaning obscure; cf. OE. scelfan to shake; also next vb. (Perh. an arbitrary formation for rhyme: cf. shelve v.)]
trans. ? To ruin.
c1425Cast. Persev. 1070 in Macro Plays, Euery man þou schalt schende & schelfe, & holde no man betyr þanne þi selfe.
▪ V. † shelf, v.2 Obs.
[f. shelf n.2]
trans. To cast on a shelf or sandbank.
1652Benlowes Theoph. i. lxxx, Such Saints high Tides n'ere ebbe so low, to shelf Them on the Quicksand of their self.
▪ VI. shelf, v.3|ʃɛlf|
[f. shelf n.1]
1. trans. To lay on the shelf, shelve.
1814Scott Drama (1874) 225 He is too often retained for the mere purpose of being laid aside, or shelfed, as it is technically called. 1832Gen. P. Thompson Exerc. (1842) II. 285 Trills.., and bravuras, will be shelfed with Mandane's hoop and Alexander's wig. 1863Kingsley Water Babies vii. 301 Blind brigadiers shelfed as principals of colleges.
2. Austral. slang. To inform upon. Cf. shelf n.1 4.
1953K. Tennant Joyful Condemned xi. 96 Central has only to lamp you coming in here, and we all go up. Jimmy here shelfed me before. 1958V. Kelly Greedy Ones 104 We were mates in this affair and you don't shelf your mates. And anyone who does shelf a mate has got to take what's coming to him. |