shelve the issue

[/ʃɛlv ðə ˈɪʃuː/]

verb phrase

arquivar a questão; pôr de lado; adiar indefinidamente

1. to postpone or abandon discussion of a topic; to set aside a problem without resolving it

The committee decided to shelve the issue until the next meeting.

O comitê decidiu arquivar a questão até a próxima reunião.

2. to deliberately avoid dealing with something problematic

We shelved the issue because no one wanted to confront the real problem.

Colocamos a questão de lado porque ninguém queria confrontar o problema real.

NYC Slang

put it on ice; bench the issue

Synonyms

Antonyms

Regional Variations

General Brazilian Portuguese

arquivar a questão; colocar de lado

most common usage in formal and informal contexts

São Paulo

engavetar o assunto

colloquial variant, regional preference

Rio de Janeiro

deixar pra lá; arquivar

more casual variant

Portugal

arquivar o assunto; deixar de lado

formal and standard usage

put the matter to rest

let sleeping dogs lie

kick the can down the road

procrastinate on

back burner the issue

Look up more words on Fala2Me

The free English-Portuguese dictionary with real Brazilian accents, NYC slang, conjugator and more