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
Sara Holdren, Vulture, 23 Apr. 2025
Affordable fundamentals Recent years have seen student housing developers compete to shoehorn as many luxury amenities as possible into residential communities, from boxing gyms to makers spaces and luxury spas.
—Jeffrey Steele, Forbes, 31 Dec. 2024
Dan Cancian, Forbes.com, 13 June 2025
Aster shoehorns all manner of hot-button topics: identity politics, social media silos, false flag attacks, and the allure of conspiracy theories, all facilitated by the wholesale erosion of truth in the digital age.
—Thomas Page, CNN Money, 17 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for shoehorn
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Noun
If there’s a way to shoehorn in a Las Vegas dance number, complete with jazz hands and ostrich feathers, do it!
—Sara Holdren, Vulture, 23 Apr. 2025
Affordable fundamentals Recent years have seen student housing developers compete to shoehorn as many luxury amenities as possible into residential communities, from boxing gyms to makers spaces and luxury spas.
—Jeffrey Steele, Forbes, 31 Dec. 2024
Verb
World soccer’s calendar is already saturated beyond breaking point and shoehorning another major tournament in the summer does very little to allay concerns over players’ welfare.
—Dan Cancian, Forbes.com, 13 June 2025
Aster shoehorns all manner of hot-button topics: identity politics, social media silos, false flag attacks, and the allure of conspiracy theories, all facilitated by the wholesale erosion of truth in the digital age.
—Thomas Page, CNN Money, 17 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for shoehorn
Cite this Entry
“Shoehorn.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/shoehorn. Accessed 19 Jul. 2025.
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