mantel shelf
- noun
- /ˈmæntəl ʃɛlf/
:
repisa de la chimenea
- Then, stowing her heynim in a box, she set it on the mantel shelf.
Examples
-
She stood up and walked over to the mantel shelf.
Fiction book (1993) -
Eleanor stood by the mantel shelf, looking down at the fire, unlit.
Fiction book (1993) -
There were tall, slender candlesticks on the mantel shelf, not at either end, as one might have expected, but both of them a little to the left of the center, asymmetrically.
Fiction book (1993) -
The family displayed their framed photographs on the mantel shelf above the fireplace.
-
Every holiday, she decorated the mantel shelf with festive ornaments and candles.
-
The antique vase sat proudly on the mantel shelf, catching everyone's eye in the living room.
Synonyms
26
4.4
A shelf above a fireplace that holds decorations
14
5.6
A shelf above a fireplace for showing clocks or photos
9
4.9
A shelf above a fireplace where people put clocks or photos
1
4.8
A shelf above a fireplace where people put clocks or photos
A shelf above a fireplace that holds pictures or small objects
How Ornate
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound simply combines two concrete nouns whose meanings directly indicate a shelf associated with a fireplace; if a learner knows 'mantel' (shelf above a fireplace) and 'shelf' they can immediately infer the referent. This is a straightforward, compositional noun–noun phrase found cross-linguistically, so the meaning is predictable from the parts.
Etymology
Mantel shelf comes from the old word mantel, which meant a 'cloak' or cover for the fireplace, and shelf is the board that sits above it. So the phrase refers to the shelf above a fireplace where people put clocks, photos, and decorations.