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on the shelf

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on the shelf (British & Australian, old-fashioned)

if someone, especially a woman, is on the shelf, they are not married and people now believe they are too old to get married. I was afraid my daughter would never find a husband, that she'd be left on the shelf.

See also: shelf

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? References in classic literature
She had come down to sit beside me while I wrote, and sometimes, when I looked up, her eye was not on me, but on the shelf where 'The Master of Ballantrae' stood inviting her. Margaret Ogilvy by Barrie, James Matthew View in context Thinking it both unfair and unkind to deprive her of any good qualities that were handy, the boy took down every bottle on the shelf and poured some of the contents in Margolotte's dish. The Patchwork Girl of Oz by Baum, L. Frank View in context There on the shelf was a bottle which she at once recognized as one containing some of her three-year-old homemade currant wine for which she was celebrated in Avonlea, although certain of the stricter sort, Mrs. Anne Of Green Gables by Montgomery, Lucy Maud View in context More results

References in classic literature

She had come down to sit beside me while I wrote, and sometimes, when I looked up, her eye was not on me, but on the shelf where 'The Master of Ballantrae' stood inviting her.

Margaret Ogilvy by Barrie, James Matthew View in context

Thinking it both unfair and unkind to deprive her of any good qualities that were handy, the boy took down every bottle on the shelf and poured some of the contents in Margolotte's dish.

The Patchwork Girl of Oz by Baum, L. Frank View in context

There on the shelf was a bottle which she at once recognized as one containing some of her three-year-old homemade currant wine for which she was celebrated in Avonlea, although certain of the stricter sort, Mrs.

Anne Of Green Gables by Montgomery, Lucy Maud View in context

More results

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