pigeonhole

pigeonhole \PIJ-uhn-hohl\, verb:

1. To lay aside for use or reference at some later, indefinite time.

noun:
1. One of a series of small, open compartments, as in a desk,cabinet, or the like, used for filing or sorting papers, letters,etc.
2. In printing, white space created by setting words or lines too far apart.

"Mobility's hard in Spain; people pigeonhole you for life in the box where they think you belong."
-- Enrique Vila-Mata, Dublinesque

Even his staunchest supporters didn't know where to pigeonhole him politically.
-- Bruce Duffy, The World As I Found It

Pigeonhole begins with the sense of a literal nesting place for the bird, then finds figurative usage in printing. The first use as a verb is recorded in 1854.