From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishcontinental shelfˌcontinental ˈshelf noun (plural continental shelves) [countable] technical HEOthe edge of a continent where it slopes down steeply to the bottom of the ocean
Examples from the Corpus
continental shelf• The government has announced the opening of the first tender for exploration on its continental shelf.• Five more oilfields were producing oil from the North Sea continental shelf in 1976, including the massive Brent and Alpha fields.• The submarine extension of a continent is called the continental shelf.• The shallow drilling programme is central to the systematic survey of the continental shelf.• This basin, called the Chicxulub crater, formed on the continental shelf in shallow water.• Most species of marine organism live on the continental shelf.• The southern component spreads over the continental shelf. 