Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. in pawn.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Laid on the shelf [...] Pawned.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1785].
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue [as cit. 1785].
1849		Sam Sly 10 Mar. 3/3: The foreman's puppy, young K——k, of the tea-warehouse, not to be so conceited, for we well know his clothes are on the shelf Monday morning and out on the Saturday night.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 72: Shelf, a pawn shop,‘on the shelf,’ pawned.
1941		‘Digg Mee’ ‘Observation Post’ in N.Y. Age 25 Oct. 9/6: You can put a person on the shelf, but you must live with yourself.

2. dead; thus as phr. shelf one’s ass, to die.

1801		C. Dibdin Yngr Song Smith 77: She’s on the shelf, / For she had sure and sartain been kilt by the doctor / Had she not sav’d her life, joy, by hanging herself.
1896		C.E. Trevathan ‘Bully of the Town’ 🎵 I’m getting so bad that I’m askeered of myself. / I was looking for that bully, now he’s on the shelf.
1936		L. Pound ‘American Euphemisms for Dying’ in AS XI:3 198: Placed on the shelf.
1958		W. Talsman Gaudy Image (1966) 202: ‘Rose has been sanitized,’ he announced dryly [...] ‘You mean she shelved her ass?’ asked one of the first to recover.

3. past one’s best, retired, thus put on the shelf, to retire, to dismiss.

1821		Egan Life in London (1904) 140: Once a distinguished leader of fashion, ... but he is on the shelf now.
1834		(con. 1737–9) W.H. Ainsworth Rookwood (1857) 208: The soldier and sailor, both robbers by trade, / Full soon on the shelf, if disabled, are laid.
1843		R.S. Surtees Handley Cross (1854) 57: Many bold sportsmen, now laid on the shelf, and many a bold one still going, will glow with animation at the thoughts.
1860		Bell’s Life in Sydney 7 Apr. 4/1: Since that period he has been on the shelf [...] and we are informed, does not intend again to enter the prize ring.
1930		N. Lindsay Redheap (1965) 38: ‘Time the old blighter was put on the shelf,’ said Henry, scowling.
1936		Western Morn. News (Exeter) 29 Oct. 11/6: At 65 people on Dartmoor were not considered to be ‘on the shelf’.

4. of a woman (occas. a man), unmarried and worried about it, feeling that she has been ‘put to one side’.

1822		‘A. Burton’ My Cousin in the Army 21: Then he left poor Cellarina on the shelf.
1839		T. Hood 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— / I m not a single man .
1844		West Kent Guardian 13 jan. 3/4: ‘On the Shelf’ at Twenty-Five! [...] An unmarried lady who has passed her 25th year is considered an old maid.
1857		Paul Pry (London 15 Aug. n.p.: THE BRISTOL POLE-CAT. [...] Age 28 to 30, exceedingly dirty-looking, about 3ft. 6in. in height and has been on the shelf some time. Persons seeing the animal are requested not to touch her, for she is a Methodist, and consequently very vicious.
1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
c.1870		Hands Off music hall song 🎵 Some fine day, when I’m... Put to bed with a spade in the usual way, And yourself on the shelf a neglected old maid [F&H].
1894		Truth (Sydney) 11 Feb. 7/2: McDamper’s maiden sister, who’s as stingy as himself, / And as sour as all her sex are when they’re laid upon the shelf.
1896		Farmer Vocabula Amatoria (1966) 69: Coiffer Sainte-Catherine = to become an old maid; ‘to be put on the shelf’.
1903		Murray & Leigh [perf. Vesta Victoria] Wedding Bells 🎵 On the shelf, by myself, I’ve been lying all my life / I wonder if I ever shall be, somebody’s darling wife.
c.1910		Harrington & Powell [perf. Marie Lloyd] I Live in Hopes 🎵 And I says to myself, tho' you may be on the shelf / Never mind, Mary Anne! Don't care.
1914		Sport (Adelaide) 27 Feb. 6/5: They Say [...] That Skinny Ina thought she was dragged off the shelf when she caught the counter jumper.
1916		W. Pett Ridge Madame Prince 33: ‘Either of these two gals got a young man yet?’ ‘Not yet.’ ‘They’ll find ’emselves left on the shelf, if they ain’t careful.’.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 717: I suppose he thinks Im finished out and laid on the shelf well Im not no nor anything like it.
1926		Cork Examiner (Ireland) 20 Aug. 4/4: The days when a girl was brutally termed ‘on the shelf’ at thirty are no more.
1939		Rosetta Crawford ‘My Man Jumped Salty On Me’ 🎵 Gonna get me some poison, kill myself / Cause the man I love has put me on the shelf.
1946		D. MacDonagh Happy as Larry Act IV: You should be on the shelf. / You find yourself a husband / With the old one scarcely gone.
1958		A. Sillitoe Sat. Night and Sun. Morning 134: Doreen, at nineteen, was afraid of being ‘left on the shelf’.
1966		P. Boyle At Night All Cats Are Grey 169: Sitting waiting for your friend, Willie, to pluck up the courage to ask me out. If I don’t make a move very shortly I’ll find myself sitting on the shelf.
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 179: on the shelf [...] 2. (dated, ’40s) still canned goods, ie virginal.
1980		Undertones ‘My Perfect Cousin’ 🎵 He will never be left on the shelf / ’Cos Kevin, he’s in love with himself.
2000		Indep. Rev. 13 Mar. 1: When you have been on the shelf as long as I have.

5. (also upon the shelf, shelved) put on one side for unspecified future use.

1825		Egan Life of an Actor 59: proteus often laughed at Quill, observing, ‘that he did not use his acquaintances well, for he put them all upon the shelf’.
1849		York Herald (Yorks.) 17 Nov. 5/5: He has declined the honor of being quietly placed ‘on the shelf,’ as he has a little ambition for another contest in Guildhall Ward.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 44/2: His run with Teddy Grapes did not last long, for Teddy was very unfortunate in ‘copping drags,’ and Charley was again on the shelf.
1873		W.H. Thomes Bushrangers 120: What in the devil’s name prompted them to give that cussed Murden a command? I thought that he was shelved forever.
1886		Times (Clay Center, KS) 4 Oct. 1/5: Though not now young himself shall he be laid on the shelf, while the dude in tight breeches ‘gets there’.
1891		Kipling ‘Public Waste’ Departmental Ditties n.p.: Letters not seldom they wrote him, ‘having the honour to state,’ / It would be better for all men if he were laid on the shelf.
1900		Sporting Times 28 Apr. 1/2: ’Twas Cassidy’s favourite pastime, with his family on the shelf, / To divide his amusements amongst one when that one was himself.
1923		Star Pres (Muncie, IN) 6 Dec. 6/5: Should a man of sixty be laid on the shelf?
1939		Ida Cox ‘Pink Slip Blues’ 🎵 After four long years, Uncle Sam done put me on the shelf.
1951		C. Stoker Thicker ’n Thieves 151: [B]ecause of these [honest] qualities, he had been shelved until retirement. He wouldn’t connive, play ball or cut corners.
1966		C. Keil Urban Blues 78: If the star is with the same company the newcomer may be kept on the shelf as a threatened substitute, thus keeping the star in line.

6. transported.

1859, 1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1873		Sl. Dict.

7. finished, destroyed.

1893		P.H. Emerson Signor Lippo 37: Many a song has been put on the shelf as a failure.
1900		Flynt & Walton Powers That Prey 256: I wasn’t goin’ to have the push an’ the coppers over there belly-achin’ around about Carr bein’ laid on the shelf.
1915		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘Names’ Sporting Times 30 Jan. 1/2: I’ve a memory for names and faces, too. / One is apt to feel embarrassed, and in some sort on the shelf, / When one’s at a loss to recollect who’s who.
1921		F.M. Hueffer ‘The House’ Chap Book Mar. 18: I am just an old postman and gone very weak in the legs! Pretty well on the shelf!
1936		(con. 1920s) Dos Passos Big Money in USA (1966) 899: If a business isn’t expanding it’s on the shelf.

8. (US prison) in solitary confinement.

1935		D. Lamson We Who Are About to Die 99: When you are put on the shelf, you are locked up all the time, and you get a bucket of main-line food once a day.
1971		E.E. Landy Underground Dict. (1972).
1992		Bentley & Corbett Prison Sl. 11: On the Shelf When a prisoner is on the shelf, he is being held in solitary confinement.
1999		E. Bunker Mr Blue 172: When I got off the shelf, I wrote Louise.