4. (Naut.)
Defn: A piece of timber running the whole length of a vessel inside the timberheads. D. Kemp. To lay on the shelf, to lay aside as unnecessary or useless; to dismiss; to discard.
SHELFY
Shelf"y, a.
1. Abounding in shelves; full of dangerous shallows. "A shelfy coast." Dryden.
2. Full of strata of rock. [Obs.] The tillable fields are in some places . . . so shelfy that the corn hath much ado to fasten its root. Carew.
SHELL Shell, n. Etym: [OE. shelle, schelle, AS. scell, scyll; akin to D. shel, Icel. skel, Goth. skalja a tile, and E. skill. Cf. Scale of fishes, Shale, Skill.]
1. A hard outside covering, as of a fruit or an animal. Specifically: (a) The covering, or outside part, of a nut; as, a hazelnut shell. (b) A pod. (c) The hard covering of an egg. Think him as a serpent's egg, . . . And kill him in the shell. Shak. (d) (Zoöl.)
Defn: The hard calcareous or chitinous external covering of mollusks, crustaceans, and some other invertebrates. In some mollusks, as the cuttlefishes, it is internal, or concealed by the mantle. Also, the hard covering of some vertebrates, as the armadillo, the tortoise, and the like. (e) (Zoöl.) Hence, by extension, any mollusks having such a covering.
2. (Mil.)
Defn: A hollow projectile, of various shapes, adapted for a mortar or a cannon, and containing an explosive substance, ignited with a fuse or by percussion, by means of which the projectile is burst and its fragments scattered. See Bomb.