shoehorned; shoehorning; shoehorns
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
Otis PortExamples of shoehorn in a Sentence
Verb
A parking garage has been shoehorned between the buildings.
She's trying to shoehorn a year's worth of classes into a single semester.
I don't know how they managed to shoehorn everyone into that little room.
Recent Examples on the Web
Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 14 Feb. 2026
And in ordinary academic buildings and offices tucked up in the corners of the athletic department, university registrars and academic advisors were setting their hair on fire, trying to figure out how to approve transcripts and shoehorn new students into classes that were already full.
—Dana O’Neil, CNN Money, 9 Jan. 2026
Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune, 3 Mar. 2026
Kevin isn’t any more random or inexplicably shoehorned into the story than Irene or Glem.
—Daniel Fienberg, HollywoodReporter, 20 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for shoehorn
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Noun
Penhaligon’s bath products, Riojas in the minibar and shoehorns by the safe hint at the hotel’s general leaning towards a frictionless, global-standard sort of five-star.
—Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 14 Feb. 2026
And in ordinary academic buildings and offices tucked up in the corners of the athletic department, university registrars and academic advisors were setting their hair on fire, trying to figure out how to approve transcripts and shoehorn new students into classes that were already full.
—Dana O’Neil, CNN Money, 9 Jan. 2026
Verb
The best of the genre allow for more complexity than this one and don’t try quite so hard to shoehorn so much into 90 minutes.
—Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune, 3 Mar. 2026
Kevin isn’t any more random or inexplicably shoehorned into the story than Irene or Glem.
—Daniel Fienberg, HollywoodReporter, 20 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for shoehorn
Cite this Entry
“Shoehorn.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/shoehorn. Accessed 7 Mar. 2026.
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