laid on the shelf —(also: put on the shelf )
1. discharged from service (for reason of age, etc.):
- He had been laid on the shelf for cowardice in one of the engagements between the Dutch and the English.
2. (of problems, etc.) postponed to be considered later if at all:
- The theory of evolution was laid on the shelf until Charles Darwin and Wallace took it down again.
left on the shelf—(of a woman) considered too old to get married:
- She refused several offers of marriage, and then, at the age of forty, found herself left on the shelf.