📚 On the shelf, phrase.
❓ Definition (British • informal, dated): Past an age when one might expect to have the opportunity to marry (typically used of a woman)
❗️ Examples:
1. I'm all depressed about being left on the shelf cos I'm turning 27 on Sunday.
2. And under no circumstances would I fear being past it or left on the shelf.
3. A woman has few options but to find a husband and provider in Georgian England and Bennet is determined that her girls will not be left on the shelf.
4. And she had decided to try to make the best of being left on the shelf.
5. Beginning to think you are going to be left on the shelf forever and end up as an elderly spinster dying alone and being eaten by your own cats?
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