shoehorn

noun shoe·horn \ ˈshü-ˌhȯrn \

|Updated on: 7 Jun 2018

Examples: shoehorn in a Sentence

Definition of shoehorn

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

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Recent Examples of shoehorn from the Web

Students used shoehorns and grapefruit knives to detach screens and squirm out windows, or stumbled out a basement exit into the stabbing cold.

— New York Times, "Never Solved, a College Dorm Fire Has Become One Man’s Obsession," 13 Apr. 2018
But what makes this shoehorn special is its length—30 inches—which allows its 6-foot 3-inch owner to put on the snuggest of loafers without sitting or bending down.

— clifton leaf, Fortune, "The Quest for Intuitive Design," 22 Dec. 2017
In between, the show shoehorns social media into as many segments as possible, with sometimes-cringeworthy results.

— maeve mcdermott, USA TODAY, "Here's why MTV's 'TRL' reboot is totally, really lame," 11 Oct. 2017
The Polynesian-themed bash shoehorns tropical drinks, Tiki art, surf rock, go-go dancers and an assorted of things for sale into one flea market.

— john petkovic, cleveland.com, "Tiki Underground bar and restaurant to host Tu Tiki flea market (photos)," 14 July 2017
An image or phrase finds you, pleases you with its wit or vividness, shoehorns open your evolving vision of the fictive world, and before that change gets fully processed, here comes another.

— george saunders, The New Yorker, "Grace Paley, the Saint of Seeing," 3 Mar. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'shoehorn.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

First Known Use of shoehorn

1589

in the meaning defined above

See Words from the same year

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shoehorn

verb

Definition of shoehorn

shoehorned; shoehorning; shoehorns

transitive verb

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

See shoehorn defined for English-language learners

Examples of shoehorn in a Sentence

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 of shoehorn from the Web

With two children now and a responsible job as an English professor, Mr. Coyne has to shoehorn his Scottish adventure between semesters.

— john paul newport, WSJ, "Summer Books: Golf," 23 May 2018
No! — Mark Ash (@MarkAsh78) May 8, 2018 MLB trying to shoehorn Facebook, especially NOW, is garbage.

— michael mcgough, sacbee, "'Total joke': Why MLB's partnership with Facebook has Giants fans and beat writers mad | The Sacramento Bee," 8 May 2018
To shoehorn the images from a widescreen epic into practically passport-photo size is criminal.

— gary m. kramer, Philly.com, "'Giant': A giant book about a giant film," 4 May 2018
Faced with defeat in the House of Commons, the government dropped its opposition to the amendment, clearing the way for it to be shoehorned into the legislation.

— The Economist, "Transparency is being forced on Britain’s overseas territories," 3 May 2018
But Erik Morimoto, Cary’s public works director, said engineers figured out a way to shoehorn a new building onto that property.

— john keilman, chicagotribune.com, "Cary to build $2.4 million Metra station," 18 Apr. 2018
What may be worse is her attempt to shoehorn Hughes into a #MeToo movement prompted by the Harvey Weinstein scandals.

— jason l. riley, WSJ, "Revising History, Hollywood Style," 17 Apr. 2018
But while many school shooters are bullied, a one-size-fits-all profile of school shooters does not exist, according to an FBI report, and to shoehorn these individuals into one oversimplifies the issue.

— jamie ducharme, Time, "Parkland Student: Kindness Won't Stop School Shootings," 28 Mar. 2018
This solo sulk then develops into a lover’s quarrel with Kehlani’s guest vocal, which gets songwriting and arranging points for weaving her voice into the narrative seamlessly, instead of as an awkwardly shoehorned-in cameo.

— morgan enos, Billboard, "Charlie Puth & Kehlani's New Duet 'Done For Me' is a Nu-Soul Lovers' Quarrel at a Bummer of a Party," 15 Mar. 2018