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Shelf vs Sheaf - What's the difference?

shelf | sheaf |

As nouns the difference between shelf and sheaf

is that shelf is a flat, rigid, rectangular structure, fixed at right angles to a wall, and used to support, store or display objects while sheaf is a quantity of the stalks and ears of wheat, rye, or other grain, bound together; a bundle of grain or straw.

As a verb sheaf is

to gather and bind into a sheaf; to make into sheaves; as, to sheaf wheat.

shelf

English

(wikipedia shelf)

Noun

(shelves)
  • A flat, rigid, rectangular structure, fixed at right angles to a wall, and used to support, store or display objects.
  • * 2012 October 31, David M. Halbfinger, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/01/nyregion/new-jersey-continues-to-cope-with-hurricane-sandy.html?hp]," New York Times (retrieved 31 October 2012):
    • Localities across New Jersey imposed curfews to prevent looting. In Monmouth, Ocean and other counties, people waited for hours for gasoline at the few stations that had electricity. Supermarket shelves were stripped bare.
  • The capacity of such an object; as, a shelf of videos.
  • A projecting ledge that resembles such an object.
  • A reef, shoal or sandbar.

    • Synonyms

    * (capacity) shelfful

    Related terms

    * shelve

    Derived terms

    * bookshelf * continental shelf * off the shelf * on the shelf * shelfful * shelvy * shelf life

    Anagrams

    * English nouns with irregular plurals 1000 English basic words

    sheaf

    English

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • A quantity of the stalks and ears of wheat, rye, or other grain, bound together; a bundle of grain or straw.
  • * 1593 , (William Shakespeare), Titus Andronicus , Act V, Scene III, line 70:
    • O, let me teach you how to knit again / This scattered corn into one mutual sheaf , / These broken limbs again into one body.
  • * (rfdate) (John Dryden):
    • The reaper fills his greedy hands, / And binds the golden sheaves in brittle bands.
  • Any collection of things bound together; a bundle.
    • a sheaf of paper
  • A bundle of arrows sufficient to fill a quiver, or the allowance of each archer.
  • * (rfdate) (John Dryden):
    • The sheaf of arrows shook and rattled in the case.
  • A quantity of arrows, usually twenty-four.
  • * 1786 , Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons , page 34:
    • Arrows were anciently made of reeds, afterwards of cornel wood, and occasionally of every species of wood: but according to Roger Ascham, ash was best; arrows were reckoned by sheaves', a ' sheaf consisted of twenty-four arrows.
  • (mechanical) A sheave.
  • (mathematics) An abstract construct in topology that associates data to the open sets of a topological space, together with well-defined restrictions from larger to smaller open sets, subject to the condition that compatible data on overlapping open sets corresponds, via the restrictions, to a unique datum on the union of the open sets.
  • *

    • Verb

    (en verb)
  • To gather and bind into a sheaf; to make into sheaves; as, to sheaf wheat.
  • To collect and bind cut grain, or the like; to make sheaves.
  • * 1599 , William Shakespeare, As You Like It , Act III, Scene II, line 107:
    • They that reap must sheaf and bind; Then to cart with Rosalind.
    English nouns with irregular plurals