ledge

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
ledge/leʤ/

▶noun

• 1 a narrow horizontal surface projecting from a wall, cliff, etc.

• 2 an underwater ridge, especially one of rocks near the seashore.

• 3 Mining a stratum of metal-bearing rock.

– derivatives
ledged adjective,
ledgy adjective.

– origin ME (denoting a strip of wood or other material fixed across a door or gate): perh. from an early form of lay1.