top shelf
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top shelf
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* (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.
adjective top-shelf
-
Best, or high quality.
I bought a bottle of top shelf whiskey.
Similar: top notch, ace, admirable, amazing, awe-inspiring, awesome, badass, broyal, bang on, bang-up, studly, based
- Describing books, magazines, or movies that have adult content or softcore pornography. Most of the band used to buy Autotrader to read on the various bus and plane journeys, but Barry would always turn up with a copy of Underwear Unlimited or some other seedy little top-shelf mag.
noun top shelves · top-shelf
- The upper part of the goal.
Talk about this word "top shelf." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/top%20shelf. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. top shelf. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/top%20shelf "top shelf." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/top%20shelf.Cite this
@misc{top_shelf_2026,
title = {top shelf},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/top%20shelf},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
