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Shelve   Listen
verb
Shelve  v. i.  (past & past part. shelved; pres. part. shelving)  To incline gradually; to be slopping; as, the bottom shelves from the shore.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Shelve" Quotes from Famous Books



... of Marat still sitting outside the tavern opposite, and was glad enough, in this instance, to shelve his responsibility on the shoulders of the popular "Friend of the People." There was general searching in ragged pockets for grimy papers with official seals thereon, and whilst Bibot ordered one of his men to take the six passports across the road to citizen ...
— The League of the Scarlet Pimpernel • Baroness Orczy

... occipital region of the skull, also, not unfrequently becomes less prominent; so that it not only fails to project beyond a line drawn perpendicular to the hinder extremity of the glabello-occipital line, but even, in some cases, begins to shelve away from it, forwards, almost immediately. In consequence of this circumstance, the parts of the occipital bone which lie above and below the tuberosity make a much more acute angle with one another ...
— On Some Fossil Remains of Man • Thomas H. Huxley

... never have such attributes. Picturesque mountains rise from narrow valleys, such as form the beds of lakes in Switzerland, Scotland, and Northern Italy; but from such broad waters as those of Lake Ontario, Lake Erie, and Lake Michigan, the shores shelve very gradually, and have none of the materials of ...
— Volume 1 • Anthony Trollope

... thinking things out for himself, but had until now always adhered to the ideas which had been handed down from generation to generation as established—and he often found it difficult and wearisome. Then he would try to shelve the whole subject, in order to escape from it; but ...
— Pelle the Conqueror, Complete • Martin Andersen Nexo

... prospect called up those questions he had been trying for a minute to shelve. How was it that in a land of milk and honey men were finding it so hard to live? How was it that with conditions in which every man might have enough and to spare, making it his aim to see that his fellow had the same, there could be greed and ...
— The Side Of The Angels - A Novel • Basil King

... a cultivated country, and following the road, which wound amongst hedgerows, we arrived at a place where the ground began gradually to shelve down. Here, on the right, was the commencement of an aqueduct by means of which the town on the opposite hill was supplied; it was at this point scarcely two feet in altitude, but, as we descended, it became higher and higher, and its ...
— The Bible in Spain • George Borrow

... "where the shore is shelving there will be first a retreat of the water, and then the wave will break upon the beach and roll far in upon the land." This is precisely what happened when the great wave reached the eastern shores of New Zealand, which are known to shelve down to very shallow water, continuing far away ...
— Young Folks' Library, Volume XI (of 20) - Wonders of Earth, Sea and Sky • Various

... and claim her at the specified time, four years thence, if she should not object to be claimed, was as much a part of his programme as were the exploits abroad and elsewhere that were to prelude it. The very thoroughness of his intention for that advanced date inclined him all the more readily to shelve the subject now. Her unhappy caution to him not to write too soon was a comfortable license in his present state of tension about sublime scientific things, which knew not woman, nor her sacrifices, nor her fears. In truth he was not only too young in years, but too literal, direct, and uncompromising ...
— Two on a Tower • Thomas Hardy

... never saw such a drum. A great big room with a real bed instead of those shelve things and off of the room a bath, and we were only to be on the water five days. Can you beat it? I was the one surprised pup and as soon as I hung my 'Merry Widow' on the gas jet I asked Wilbur ...
— The Sorrows of a Show Girl • Kenneth McGaffey

... and agreed to implement an IMF program designed to gradually reduce the budget deficit and implement badly needed structural reforms. The Persian Gulf crisis that began in August 1990, however, aggravated Jordan's already serious economic problems, forcing the government to shelve the IMF program, stop most debt payments, and suspend rescheduling negotiations. Aid from Gulf Arab states and worker remittances have plunged, and refugees have flooded the country, straining government resources. Economic recovery is unlikely without substantial foreign aid, ...
— The 1992 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency.

... the method of our forefathers. And see the ignoble and feeble method we have put in its place. We cowardly promote our inefficient persons to the House of Lords, or similar obscure heights. We shelve them, or swathe them, or drop them. Sometimes, indeed, we apply a simulacrum of the ancient method of punishment, especially if the offence is sexual, but even there we have forgotten the correct method of its application, for in such cases ...
— Impressions And Comments • Havelock Ellis

... Alexandra pleaded. "DON'T make a fuss now. Justine was my darling belle-mere's guest to-day, don't you see? It'll be so awkward, scrapping right in the face of Owen's news. Couldn't you sort of shelve the Justine question ...
— The Treasure • Kathleen Norris

... further that these roving Commissions to report were often no index of Government policy, but were simply appointed to shelve, while professing to consider a question ...
— Major Vigoureux • A. T. Quiller-Couch

... at Toronto, followed by this strenuous welcome at Ottawa, had made great demands upon him, and it was decided to cut down his program that day to a Garden Party in the charming grounds of Government House, and to shelve all engagements for the next ...
— Westward with the Prince of Wales • W. Douglas Newton

... around for several generations. The businesses whose vitamin products I recommend will not likely exist in twenty years. Even sooner than that the product names and details of the formulations will almost certainly be altered. So, for future readers discovering this book in a library or dusty shelve of a used book store, if I, at my current level of understanding, were manufacturing a childrens and young adults vitamin formula myself, this is what it would contain. Any commercial formulation within 25 percent of these figures plus or minus ...
— How and When to Be Your Own Doctor • Dr. Isabelle A. Moser with Steve Solomon

... paper. He wants somebody else already. A woman that's done as I have—he can throw me away like an old shoe! But I want you to promise me that if he ever shelves me you'll let the world know. Did you see him hugging them girls? He's getting ready to shelve me, ...
— Vandemark's Folly • Herbert Quick

... masses; the existing hill side is commonly an accumulation of debris; the existing glen commonly an excavated watercourse; and it is only here and there that portions of rock, retaining impress of their original form, jut from the bank, or shelve across ...
— Modern Painters, Volume IV (of V) • John Ruskin

... said Fanny, with a triumphant smile. 'There may be many less promising ways of arriving at an end than that, MY dear. That piece of insolence may think, now, that it would be a great success to get her son off upon me, and shelve me. But, perhaps, she little thinks how I would retort upon her if I married ...
— Little Dorrit • Charles Dickens

... this reveals the intention of the law, and that such a condition was omitted in connection with bewaarplaatsen simply and solely through oversight, and because at that time it never occurred to anyone to suppose that the gold-bearing deposits would shelve off and be accessible at such great distances from the outcrop as where the bewaarplaatsen are located. The companies moreover pointed out that these areas were in every case located in the middle of property held under mining licenses, that they themselves owned the surface of the ...
— The Transvaal from Within - A Private Record of Public Affairs • J. P. Fitzpatrick

... dear companion of every day. But she was too generous to add to her mother's distress by refusing to be comforted, and the bride nervously powdered her eyes, and re-arranged her veil before descending to the hall, anxious as ever to shelve a painful subject, and turn her ...
— The Independence of Claire • Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey

... it was the coast that Was just describing—Yes, it was the coast— Lay at this period quiet as the sky, The sands untumbled, the blue waves untost, And all was stillness, save the sea-bird's cry, And dolphin's leap, and little billow crost By some low rock or shelve, that made it fret Against the boundary ...
— Don Juan • Lord Byron

... to see you get licked," denied Craig irritably. "All I ask is that you shelve some of your cock-sureness. I'm not so dead-broke that I must swallow all of it. I've warned you that he is a strong man. He used to be one of the best college ...
— Parrot & Co. • Harold MacGrath

... half from York Factory including the windings of the river. Steel River, through which our course lay, is about three hundred yards wide at its mouth; its banks have more elevation than those of Hayes' River, but they shelve more gradually down to the stream, and afford a tolerably good towing path, which compensates, in some degree, for the rapids and frequent shoals that impede its navigation. We succeeded in getting about ten miles above the mouth of the river, before the close of day ...
— Narrative of a Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea, in the Years 1819-20-21-22, Volume 1 • John Franklin

... well describe the mode of finding the honey the bee-hunters adopt. On perceiving a bee sucking the juice from flowers, he hurries to the nearest pool and selects a spot where the banks shelve gradually. He then lying on his face fills his mouth with water, and patiently awaits the arrival of the bee: as the insect requires moisture, he knows that ere long it will come and drink. The moment it approaches him he blows the ...
— Adventures in Australia • W.H.G. Kingston

... it too fine. It's steep here, but it may shelve farther on. If you have to wade you'll never find me, and you'll make a deuce of a row. Got your watch, matches, knife? No knife? Take mine; never go anywhere without a knife.' (It was his seaman's idea ...
— Riddle of the Sands • Erskine Childers

... political devices; and to pretend that a field preacher under the governorship of Pontius Pilate, or even Pontius Pilate himself in council with all the wisdom of Rome, could have worked out applications of Christianity or any other system of morals for the twentieth century, is to shelve the subject much more effectually than Nero and all its other persecutors ever succeeded in doing. Personal righteousness, and the view that you cannot make people moral by Act of Parliament, is, in fact, the ...
— Preface to Androcles and the Lion - On the Prospects of Christianity • George Bernard Shaw

... Hampton's idea is to shelve the matrimony proposition and begin by seein' if they can qualify as friends. She shows him how they'd never really seen enough of each other to know if they had any ...
— Torchy, Private Sec. • Sewell Ford

... Gallagher, who was beginning to feel suspicious about the priest's evident desire to shelve the subject. ...
— General John Regan - 1913 • George A. Birmingham

... nonsense," said Sir Robert. "Clara, I must trust to you to put this notion out of Anne's head. Why should her dancing days be over? I am not a Methuselah, I hope. She has no right to shelve herself so early, has she? I hope to see her make a good match ...
— Phoebe, Junior • Mrs [Margaret] Oliphant

... the foeman's cohorts thrown, But neither side desires you in its own! The false GLADSTONIUS first, he whom you nourish, A snake in your spare bosoms, dares to flourish Fresh arms against you; potent, though polite, He fain would bow you out of the big fight, Civilly shelve you. "Don't kick up a row, And—spoil my game! Another day, not now, There's a dear creature!" CHAMBERLAINIUS, too, Hard as a nail, and squirmy as a screw, Sides with the elder hero, just for once; CHAPLINIUS also, active for the nonce On the ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 102, April 30, 1892 • Various

... individual to cast his vote regardless of party affiliations as it is for a soldier to fight without regard for army discipline and organization. Parties are the result of compromises, and the individual must be willing to shelve minor issues for the sake of uniting with his fellows upon vital issues. Ordinarily, the individual will best perform his civic duties by affiliating ...
— Problems in American Democracy • Thames Ross Williamson

... "I think, after all, we may shelve the question of payment between you and me. Personally I hope—you will forgive my frankness—that we may never be called upon to meet again. You see"—his voice broke, but he cleared his throat angrily and went on—"I can't help remembering that if ...
— Afterwards • Kathlyn Rhodes

... discussion was that though he had not been directly advised to do it, Raye wrote, in his real name, what he would never have decided to write on his own responsibility; namely that he could not live without her, and would come down in the spring and shelve her looming ...
— Life's Little Ironies - A set of tales with some colloquial sketches entitled A Few Crusted Characters • Thomas Hardy



Words linked to "Shelve" :   place, postpone, call off, prorogue, lay, defer, put off, hold over, call, put, reschedule, set back, probate, scratch, cancel, hold, suspend, delay, position



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