▪ I. shelfy, a.1
(ˈʃɛlfɪ)
[f. shelf n.2 + -y. Cf. shelvy.]
Abounding in sandbanks lying near the surface of the water.
| 1576 Sir H. Gilbert Disc. Pass. Cataia vi, Because all Seas..are maintained by the abundance of the water, waxing more shallow and shelffie towards the ende. 1632 Lithgow Trav. iii. 99 We had a shelfie shoare. Ibid. v. 228 With dreadfull snares Begirded round, in shelfie gulfes of wracke. 1697 Dryden æneid v. 1125 A shelfy coast, Long infamous for ships and sailors lost. 1725 Pope Odyss. i. 257 Among a savage race, whose shelfy bounds With ceaseless roar the foaming deep surrounds. |
▪ II. shelfy, a.2
(ˈʃɛlfɪ)
[f. shelf n.1 + -y.]
Having ledges or terraces.
| 1767 Fawkes Idyll. Theocr. xxi. 53 Methought I sat upon a shelfy steep. 1887 Blackmore Cripps xxxvi, A mighty hedge of beetling brows, and over-hanging shagginess, and shelfy curves, and brambly depths. |
▪ III. shelfy, a.3 dial. (Devon and Cornwall.)
[f. shelf n.3 + -y.]
Full of ‘shelf’ or slaty rock.
The sense ‘full of strata of rock’ in Webster 1864, to which Ogilvie 1882 adds ‘having rocky ledges cropping up’ is based on quot. 1602.
| 1602 Carew Cornwall 20 The tillable fields are in some places..so shelfie that the Corne hath much adoe to fasten his roote. 1674 J. Flavel Husb. Spiritualized vii. 70 Some⁓times this plow thin shelfy ground doth turn. 1753 Chambers' Cycl. Suppl. s.v. Sea-sand, It is sometimes composed of shelly matter alone; but sometimes it is made up partly of this, and partly of broken stones: in this last case it is called shelfy sand. 1778 Pryce Min. Cornub. 74 The Slate, or Shelfy-stone, is always uppermost next the loamy soil. |