shoehorn

¹shoe·horn

noun \-ˌhȯrn\

Definition of SHOEHORN

: a curved piece (as of horn, wood, or metal) used in putting on a shoe

First Known Use of SHOEHORN

1589

Rhymes with SHOEHORN

acorn, adorn, airborne, althorn, baseborn, bass horn, bicorne, blackthorn, blue corn, boxthorn, broomcorn, buckthorn, bullhorn, careworn, Christ's-thorn, Dearborn, dehorn, dent corn, earthborn, einkorn, field corn, firethorn, firstborn, flint corn, foghorn, forewarn, forlorn, forworn, freeborn, French horn, green corn, greenhorn, hartshorn, hawthorn, highborn, hulled corn, inborn, inkhorn, krummhorn, leghorn, longhorn, lovelorn, lowborn, newborn, outworn, pod corn, popcorn, post horn, pronghorn, ramshorn, reborn, saxhorn, seaborne, self-born, shipborne, shopworn, shorthorn, skyborne, soilborne, stillborn, stinkhorn, suborn, sweet corn, tick-borne, timeworn, tinhorn, toilworn, tricorne, trueborn, twice-born, twinborn, unborn, unworn, wayworn, wellborn, well-worn, wind-borne

²shoehorn

transitive verb

Definition of SHOEHORN

1

: to force to be included or admitted <shoehorned irrelevant arguments into his essay>

2

: to force or compress into an insufficient space or period of time : squeeze <shoehorn the past, present, and future into about 500 pages — Otis Port>

Examples of SHOEHORN

1. A parking garage has been shoehorned between the buildings.
2. She's trying to shoehorn a year's worth of classes into a single semester.
3. I don't know how they managed to shoehorn everyone into that little room.

First Known Use of SHOEHORN

1859

Related to SHOEHORN

Synonyms

cram, crush, jam, ram, sandwich, crowd, squeeze, stuff, wedge

Related Words

fill, heap, jam-pack, load, pack