shelved; shelving
1
: to furnish with shelves
2
: to place on a shelf
shelve books
3
a
: to remove from active service
b
: to put off or aside
shelve a project
: to slope in a formation like a shelf
shelver
noun
Examples of shelve in a Sentence
The books were shelved according to category.
let's shelve the project for now
Recent Examples on the Web
San Jose was on the cusp of a renaissance in 2019, but the pandemic shelved numerous development plans, including a mega project on the downtown’s western edge by Google.
—
Julia Prodis Sulek, Mercury News, 1 Feb. 2026
Items should be handled once (think hung, shelved, or stored) rather than set down temporarily.
—Caroline Lubinsky, Martha Stewart, 29 Jan. 2026
The records themselves are not easy to use; manuscripts are shelved around the world, and the texts, written in four different European languages, still have not been fully brought together in modern translations and analysis.
—Literary Hub, 28 Jan. 2026
One by one, the retail experiments got shuttered and shelved.
—Richard Kestenbaum, Forbes.com, 28 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for shelve
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Julia Prodis Sulek, Mercury News, 1 Feb. 2026
Items should be handled once (think hung, shelved, or stored) rather than set down temporarily.
—Caroline Lubinsky, Martha Stewart, 29 Jan. 2026
The records themselves are not easy to use; manuscripts are shelved around the world, and the texts, written in four different European languages, still have not been fully brought together in modern translations and analysis.
—Literary Hub, 28 Jan. 2026
One by one, the retail experiments got shuttered and shelved.
—Richard Kestenbaum, Forbes.com, 28 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for shelve
Cite this Entry
“Shelve.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/shelve. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.
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