shoehorn

plural shoehorns · alternative shoe horn · alternative shoe-horn

1. A smooth tool that assists in putting the foot into a shoe, by sliding the heel in after the toe is in place.
2. derogatoryAnything by which a transaction is facilitated; a medium.

   I was about sixty feet ahead of this film in many spots, which speaks rather poorly for it. And I resented the heartthrobs which were planted in my bosom with a shoehorn via the "little child" process.

   1935, Don Herold, Going to the Movies, Life Magazine January 1935.

3. obsoleteAnything which draws on or allures; an inducement.

   1 more example

   Now you cannot but observe, that most of our fine young Ladies readily fall in with the Direction of the Graver sort, to retain in their Service, by some small Encouragement, as great a Number as they can of supernumerary and insignificant Fellows, which they use like Whiflers, and commonly call Shoeing-Horns. These are never designed to know the length of the Foot, but only when a good Offer comes to whet and spur him up to the Point. Nay 'tis the Opinion of that grave Lady, Madam Matchwell, that it's absolutely convenient for every prudent Family to have several of these Implements about the House, to clap on as occasion serves, and that every Spark ought to produce a Certificate of his being a Shoeing-Horn, before he be admitted as a Shoe. A certain Lady, whom I could name, if it was necessary, has at present more Shoeing-Horns of all Sizes, Countries, and Colours, in her Service, than ever she had new Shoes in her Life.

   1652, Richard Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy

present singular third person shoehorns · participle present shoehorning · participle past shoehorned · past shoehorned · alternative shoe horn · alternative shoe-horn

1. literallyTo use a shoehorn.
2. figurativelytransitiveTo force (something) into (a tight space); to squeeze (something) into (a schedule, etc); to exert great effort to insert or include (something); to include (something) despite potent reasons not to.

   His staff want to shoehorn an extra stop into his already packed campaigning schedule.

   2 more examples

   I shoehorned his dozen burgeoning bags into the backseat of my tiny car, and off we went.

   2012, The Economist, Oct 13th 2012 issue, Italian politics: Who will be Italy’s next prime minister? A member of Mr Monti’s government admitted that, barring a hung parliament, it was impossible for the moment to see how Mr Monti could be shoehorned into politics after next spring.

3. figurativelytransitiveTo force some current event into alignment with some (usually unconnected) agenda, especially when it is fallacious.

   People claiming to be psychic may shoehorn an event into fulfillment of some vague past prediction.

   1 more example

   After the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, fundamentalist Christian evangelists Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson shoehorned the events to their agenda. They claimed that "liberal civil liberties groups, feminists, homosexuals and abortion rights supporters bear partial responsibility...because their actions have turned [my] god's anger against America."

   2015 April 5, Robert Todd Carroll, “Shoehorning”, in The Skeptic's Dictionary