http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/on-the-shelf
1: not noticed or not used:
* leave something on the shelf
Example: It's important to apply research in a practical way and not leave it on the shelf.
2: if someone, usually a woman, is on the shelf, she is not married and is considered too old for anyone to want to marry her:
Example: In those days, if you hadn't married by the time you were 30, you were definitely on the shelf.
The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted. ~ D.H. Lawrence
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