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shoehorn

American  
[shoo-hawrn] / ˈʃuˌhɔrn /

noun

  1. a shaped piece of horn, metal, or the like, inserted in the heel of a shoe to make it slip on more easily.

verb (used with object)

  1. to force into a limited or tight space.

    Can you shoehorn four of us into the back seat of your car?
shoehorn British  
/ ˈʃuːˌhɔːn /

noun

  1. a smooth curved implement of horn, metal, plastic, etc, inserted at the heel of a shoe to ease the foot into it

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

verb

  1. (tr) to cram (people or things) into a very small space

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of shoehorn

First recorded in 1580–90; shoe + horn

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

It is hard to shoehorn this spectacle of mass-integration, this enforced loss of crowns and kingdoms, into the idea of partition.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 30, 2026

I'm a big Marcus Smith fan but there is no room to shoehorn people in at international level.

From BBC • Feb. 23, 2025

“To shoehorn anything into tiny Disneyland is really hard,” Irvine says, adding, “a lot of people in merchandising would have preferred it was bigger.”

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 17, 2025

Scott, as usual, also needs to shoehorn meaning that he doesn't know how to produce and erase history that he doesn't know how to replace.

From Salon • Dec. 7, 2024

"That guy David from Rahway? He ever killed anybody with that shoehorn?"

From "Miracle's Boys" by Jacqueline Woodson

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.