▪ I. shoe-horn, n.
(ˈʃuːhɔːn)
In 5, 6 Sc. schone-, shone-, ? -schune.
1. A curved instrument of horn, metal, etc. used to facilitate the slipping of one's heel into a shoe by placing it between shoe and heel; a shoeing-horn.
| 1589 Burgh Rec. Edin. (1882) IV. 540 Ane schone horne 30d. 1612 Sc. Bk. Rates in Halyburton's Ledger (1867) 315 Shone hornes the dozen vis. 1874 Burnand My time xxiv. 213 Giving his back the graceful outward bend of a shoe⁓horn. |
2. fig. = shoeing-horn 2.
| 1630 Bp. G. Græme Let. in Miscellany S.H.S. (1904) II. 255 Sone, cum not in such termis, for..I fear that if more be offered it will be takin, be warie, ye be no schurehorne [? read schunehorne]. 1869 Lonsdale Gloss., Shoe-horn, a puffer at an auction. 1894 Northumberld. Gloss., Shoe⁓horn, a helper on. One employed to bid for the sellers at sales. |
3. = shoeing-horn 3.
| 1864 Atkinson Prov. Names Birds, Shoe-horn. Avocet—Recurvirostra avocetta. 1895 P. H. Emerson Birds Norfolk Broadland lxxxvi. 281 And you know 'tis an avocet, or ‘shoe-horn’, as the old Broadsmen call him. |
▪ II. ˈshoe-horn, v.
† 1. trans. To cuckold. (Cf. horn v. 2.) Obs.—1
| c 1650 R. Brathwait Barnabees Jrnl. ii. xvi. H 6, Venus swore it, She'd shooe-horn her Vulcans forehead. |
2. a. To put or thrust (a thing) upon (a person) or (a person) into (a position) by means of an ‘instrument’ or ‘tool’ for the purpose.
| 1859 W. Chadwick Life De Foe v. 292 A penny trash, shoe-horned upon the public for buyers, by the addition of the Shortest Way with Daniel De Foe. 1901 North Western Daily Mail (Barrow) 6 Mar., A non-expert..who is shoehorned into a position like that of the War Secretary. |
b. To manœuvre or compress (someone or something) into (in, on to) an inadequate space (occas. into an inadequate period of time).
| 1927 D. L. Sayers Unnatural Death vi. 64 He shoe⁓horned himself into his seat [in a motor car]. 1954 Archit. Rev. CXVI. 212/1 For the second edition he shoehorned in material on Eiffel, Maillart and Alto, thus playing havoc with his illustration numbers. 1968 Economist 18 May 69/1 Big aircraft are shoe-horned on to small landing strips with only elementary navigation aids. 1969 J. Wainwright Take-over Men iii. 37 Lewis..was shoe⁓horning himself behind the steering wheel. 1972 Real Estate Rev. Winter 107/1 The logical-thought input might be assumed to have been forcibly pressed and shoe⁓horned into a preconceived formal framework. 1974 Daily Tel. (Colour Suppl.) 23 Aug. 7/2 In order to shoe⁓horn in more people airlines and aircraft manufacturers have given up any interest at all in comfort. 1978 Science 17 Mar. 1161/2 Nearly 140 symposia and almost 1000 speakers shoehorned into five days and nights. 1979 R. L. Simon Peking Duck ii. 19 The houses were..shoe⁓horned onto thirty feet of beachfront land. |
3. intr. To act as a ‘shoe-horn’ at a sale. dial. (Cf. shoe-horn n. 2.)
| 1904 Eng. Dial. Dict. |