shelve

Etymology

Back-formation from shelves.

verb

1. (transitive) To place on a shelf.
   The library needs volunteers to help shelve books.
2. (transitive) To set aside; to quit or postpone.
   They shelved the entire project when they heard how much it would cost.
   The arrival of the new Birmingham units on the West Highland line suggests that a scheme to use 16 of the next batch of English Electric Type 4s previously allotted to the Scottish Region, Nos. D357-D384, on the West Highland and Callander-Oban lines has been shelved. 1961 October, “Motive Power Miscellany: Scottish Region”, in Trains Illustrated, page 636
   When we shelve our pain, it doesn't go away. Rather, it festers in a myriad of ways. 2005, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, David Kessler, On Grief and Grieving, page 102
3. To furnish with shelves.
   to shelve a closet or a library
4. (slang) To take (drugs) by anal or vaginal insertion.
   I love shelving ecstasy! June 4, 2002, Anthony Hodges, “Drugs seized by Customs (WARNING)”, in alt.anagrams (Usenet)
   I had a funny conversation with my dad last night about shelving. It's when you shelve a pill up your bum. It was a lovely dinner conversation. June 19, 2011, “School daze”, in The New Zealand Herald
   Some people use Ecstasy using a method known as “shafting” or “shelving” which involves inserting a pill or tablet into the anus. 2013, Edward J. Benavidez, Getting High: The Effects of Drugs, page 65
   Occasionally, they are taken anally ('shelving'). 2016, John B. Saunders, Noeline C. Latt, E. Jane Marshall, Addiction Medicine, page 44
5. (Wales, slang) To have sex with.
6. (intransitive) To slope; to incline; to form into shelves.
   The sand shelved gently here. Only at waist-level did the sudden dips occur, and then an upward-sloping hill would lead to a sand-bar, to a new shore islanded in the sea. 1958, Anthony Burgess, The Enemy in the Blanket (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 372

noun

1. A rocky ledge or shelf.
   And all was stillness, save the sea-bird's cry, / And dolphin's leap, and little billow crossed / By some low rock or shelve, that made it fret / Against the boundary it scarcely wet. 1819, Lord Byron, Don Juan, II.181