"top shelf" meaning in English

See top shelf in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Adjective

Audio: En-au-top shelf.ogg [Australia]
Etymology: * (US: best, or high quality): Possibly from the higher quality, thus more expensive, thus less often used liquors being stored on the less accessible top shelf behind a wet bar. * (British: material with adult content): Such material is often stored on the top shelf in a newsagent's shop, where it is both less visible and harder to reach without being seen. Etymology templates: {{sense|US: best, or high quality}} (US: best, or high quality):, {{sense|British: material with adult content}} (British: material with adult content): Head templates: {{en-adj|-}} top shelf (not comparable)
  1. (US, idiomatic) Best, or high quality. Tags: US, idiomatic, not-comparable Synonyms: top notch, excellent, top-shelf
    Sense id: en-top_shelf-en-adj-Asu8~~ch Categories (other): American English, English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 48 39 13
  2. (British, idiomatic) Describing books, magazines, or movies that have adult content or softcore pornography. Tags: British, idiomatic, not-comparable
    Sense id: en-top_shelf-en-adj-n5LYrkKM Categories (other): British English, English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 48 39 13

Noun

Audio: En-au-top shelf.ogg [Australia]
Etymology: * (US: best, or high quality): Possibly from the higher quality, thus more expensive, thus less often used liquors being stored on the less accessible top shelf behind a wet bar. * (British: material with adult content): Such material is often stored on the top shelf in a newsagent's shop, where it is both less visible and harder to reach without being seen. Etymology templates: {{sense|US: best, or high quality}} (US: best, or high quality):, {{sense|British: material with adult content}} (British: material with adult content): Head templates: {{en-noun|?}} top shelf
  1. (Canada, ice hockey) The upper part of the goal. Tags: Canada Categories (topical): Ice hockey
    Sense id: en-top_shelf-en-noun-86tqvc3l Categories (other): Canadian English, English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 48 39 13 Topics: hobbies, ice-hockey, lifestyle, skating, sports

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for top shelf meaning in English (4.9kB)

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      "args": {
        "1": "US: best, or high quality"
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      "expansion": "(US: best, or high quality):",
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        "1": "British: material with adult content"
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      "expansion": "(British: material with adult content):",
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  "etymology_text": "* (US: best, or high quality): Possibly from the higher quality, thus more expensive, thus less often used liquors being stored on the less accessible top shelf behind a wet bar.\n* (British: material with adult content): Such material is often stored on the top shelf in a newsagent's shop, where it is both less visible and harder to reach without being seen.",
  "head_templates": [
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          "text": "I bought a bottle of top shelf whiskey.",
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        "Best, or high quality."
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      "id": "en-top_shelf-en-adj-Asu8~~ch",
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US, idiomatic) Best, or high quality."
      ],
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        {
          "word": "top notch"
        },
        {
          "word": "excellent"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "81 17 2",
          "word": "top-shelf"
        }
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          "ref": "2008, Rick Wakeman, Martin Roach, Grumpy Old Rock Star, page 83",
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      "id": "en-top_shelf-en-adj-n5LYrkKM",
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        "(British, idiomatic) Describing books, magazines, or movies that have adult content or softcore pornography."
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      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/En-au-top_shelf.ogg",
      "tags": [
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      },
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        "1": "British: material with adult content"
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      "expansion": "(British: material with adult content):",
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  "etymology_text": "* (US: best, or high quality): Possibly from the higher quality, thus more expensive, thus less often used liquors being stored on the less accessible top shelf behind a wet bar.\n* (British: material with adult content): Such material is often stored on the top shelf in a newsagent's shop, where it is both less visible and harder to reach without being seen.",
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        {
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          "name": "Ice hockey",
          "orig": "en:Ice hockey",
          "parents": [
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            "Winter sports",
            "Sports",
            "Winter activities",
            "Human activity",
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      "tags": [
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        "Best, or high quality."
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        "(US, idiomatic) Best, or high quality."
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          "word": "top notch"
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        "(British, idiomatic) Describing books, magazines, or movies that have adult content or softcore pornography."
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        "The upper part of the goal."
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  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "top-shelf"
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}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.