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
Howard Gleckman, Forbes.com, 9 May 2025
But changes shoehorned by committee members have angered the Sacramento-area state senator who authored the bill, saying the new-look legislation betrays her constituents and the two young men for whom the bill is named.
—Darrell Smith, Sacbee.com, 22 Apr. 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
If Congress succeeds in shoehorning all these ideas into a single piece of legislation, some households will be happy to get a lower tax bill.
—Howard Gleckman, Forbes.com, 9 May 2025
But changes shoehorned by committee members have angered the Sacramento-area state senator who authored the bill, saying the new-look legislation betrays her constituents and the two young men for whom the bill is named.
—Darrell Smith, Sacbee.com, 22 Apr. 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 29 May. 2025.
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