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
Emmet Gates, Forbes.com, 28 Mar. 2025
The editors put in a full recap of their contentious but evolving friendship, which started with Lindsay hating Paige for shoehorning onto her show and has grown into a kind of grudging respect.
—Brian Moylan, Vulture, 10 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
The Dutchman was constantly shoehorned into an attacking midfield role that doesn’t bring out his best characteristics, yet Motta insisted on deploying him there.
—Emmet Gates, Forbes.com, 28 Mar. 2025
The editors put in a full recap of their contentious but evolving friendship, which started with Lindsay hating Paige for shoehorning onto her show and has grown into a kind of grudging respect.
—Brian Moylan, Vulture, 10 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 7 May. 2025.
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