shelve

name

1. A hamlet in Worthen with Shelve parish, western Shropshire, England (OS grid ref SO3399).

noun

Etymology: Treated as a singular form of shelves, the plural of shelf (“reef; sandbar; shoal”).

1. Alternative spelling of shelf (“a reef, sandbar, or shoal”).

   “But with a ſlaw ſuddein chauffing ſtorm-bringer Orion, / Spurnt vs too the waters: then ſootherne ſwaſhruter huffling / Flung vs on high ſhelueflats, to the rocks vs he buffeted after.”

   “[T]he greateſt of their Galliaſſes fell foule vpon another ſhip, and loſt her Rudder, ſo that guideleſſe ſhe droue vvith the tide vpon a ſhelue in the ſhoare of Callis, vvhere ſhee vvas aſſaulted by the Engliſh.”

verb

Etymology: From Late Middle English shelven (“to separate (someone or something) from another thing, keep away”); further etymology uncertain, possibly: * from shelf, shelfe (“shelf; cabinet, cupboard; grassy bank”) (though this is doubted by the Oxford English Dictionary); or * related to West Frisian skelf (“not level or straight, oblique”).

1. To tilt or tip (a cart) to discharge its contents.
2. Of land or a surface: to incline, to slope.

   “The spirit cometh first, wrapt 'twixt our wings, / Adown the causeway steep, / That shelveth towards the silent shadowy deep, / The grave of things.”

   “From that island's crown / Landward a slope of heather shelveth down / To meet the bar, but all the outer sides, / Sheer walls of porphyry, stem the swinging tides / The Atlantic sendeth, […]”

3. To be in an inclined or sloping position.