How to Use shoehorn in a Sentence

shoehorn

1 of 2 noun
  • Match your belt to your shoehorn, which should dangle from a gauge in your earlobe.
    — Colin Stokes, The New Yorker, 20 Apr. 2020
  • In the closet was a cane-size shoehorn topped with a silver dog’s head, Tom Wolfe-style.
    — Anthony Flint, BostonGlobe.com, 6 June 2018
  • But the weapons in our bedroom were limited to a shoehorn, a flattening iron and a stack of hardcover books.
    — John Kelly, Washington Post, 1 July 2018
  • The other type of flat whisk looks like a balloon whisk that has had its tines flattened between the pages of a heavy book and slightly bent at the tip, like a shoehorn.
    — Genevieve Yam, Bon Appétit, 28 Sep. 2022
  • 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, 13 Apr. 2018
  • Stephanie doesn’t use her wealth like a shoehorn, trying to fit herself into a situation like Sutton Stracke does.
    — Brian Moylan, Vulture, 7 Aug. 2025
  • In between, the show shoehorns social media into as many segments as possible, with sometimes-cringeworthy results.
    — Maeve McDermott, USA TODAY, 11 Oct. 2017
  • 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, 22 Dec. 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, 3 Mar. 2017
  • Marino honored Peninsula must-haves, like enormous walk-in dressing rooms with full sartorial knickknacks—who doesn’t need a shoehorn?
    — Linda Laban, Robb Report, 12 Sep. 2023
  • Steele needs to stay at right tackle, not switch positions in some effort to keep Tyler Smith at left tackle and shoehorn Tyron Smith in at right tackle.
    — David Moore, Dallas News, 4 Apr. 2023
  • In memory care units, anything can become a weapon — toilet plungers, shoehorns, electric razors, TV remotes, metal trash grabbers and walking canes.
    — Sahana Jayaraman, AZCentral.com, 27 June 2023
  • This one is sure to be a treat for cinephiles, fans of whodunits and general audiences as filmmaker Rian Johnson amps up the intrigue, clever dialogue and shoehorns in a who’s who of Hollywood into the cast.
    — Abid Rahman, HollywoodReporter, 1 Dec. 2025

shoehorn

2 of 2 verb
  • A parking garage has been shoehorned between the buildings.
  • I don't know how they managed to shoehorn everyone into that little room.
  • She's trying to shoehorn a year's worth of classes into a single semester.
  • Sending in the dog was about the only thing that could shoehorn me out of my chair.
    — Literary Hub, 17 Oct. 2025
  • There are a few things that feel culled from other movies and shoehorned in here to the film’s detriment.
    — Cady Drell, Marie Claire, 27 July 2018
  • This was the opposite of hacky sitcoms, where jokes are shoehorned in.
    — Stuart Miller, Washington Post, 30 May 2023
  • Wider doorways aren’t just a way to shoehorn new furniture into your home.
    — Kristin Luna, Washington Post, 6 Feb. 2023
  • Lue, who brought him to the Cavs, looked to shoehorn him into the rotation.
    — Joe Vardon, cleveland.com, 16 Feb. 2018
  • Smith has been shoehorned into a strange role in his first 65 NBA games.
    — Michael Shapiro, Chron, 15 Mar. 2023
  • Trying to shoehorn some of that into the college space has created a lot of this problem.
    — Nathan Fenno, latimes.com, 23 Mar. 2018
  • Those moments, though essentially shoehorned in, are crucial for the film to work.
    — Katie Walsh, Detroit Free Press, 5 Apr. 2018
  • These are not fat, waddling little teddy-birds shoehorned into the story.
    — Tom Philip, GQ, 10 Oct. 2017
  • Some pulled it off flawlessly, others really shoehorned it in there.
    — Dan Gartland, SI.com, 16 July 2019
  • The matches are shoehorned into the tournaments, often on outer courts and at odd times.
    — Louisa Thomas, New Yorker, 17 Aug. 2025
  • And with some games, touch control continues to make more sense than trying to shoehorn in controller support.
    — Brad Moon, Forbes, 26 Dec. 2021
  • No longer shoehorning into skates never made for her, the next version of someone else’s ideal.
    — Marcus Thompson Ii, New York Times, 4 Feb. 2026
  • Instead, the action constantly stops cold to shoehorn in one of Morissette’s hits.
    — Charles Lewis Iii, Mercury News, 12 June 2026
  • Usually in these kinds of shows the famous songs are shoehorned into a book that doesn’t sweat the dramatic details.
    — Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times, 11 June 2023
  • England managers have been guilty in the past of trying to shoehorn their best talents into a team, even if that upsets the balance.
    — Rob Tanner, New York Times, 10 Oct. 2025
  • Do me a favor, call up that agent that was foolish enough to shoehorn you into this business and this show and tell him to lower the ticket prices.
    — Ryan Gaydos, FOXNews.com, 7 Apr. 2026
  • In typical Hollywood fashion, though, a spin on the concept just had to be shoehorned in here.
    — Sergio Pereira, Space.com, 15 Jan. 2026
  • Not since 2011 had organizers shoehorned three such climbs into the same stage.
    — Andrew Dampf, The Seattle Times, 9 July 2017
  • The best of the genre allow for more complexity than this one and don’t try quite so hard to shoehorn so much into 90 minutes.
    — Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune, 3 Mar. 2026
  • So the world of Schumann and Schubert always felt shoehorned into that framework.
    — Tim Greiving, Variety, 4 Apr. 2023
  • But don't shoehorn in a hair streak so that the audience will be able to intuit her entire personality from it.
    — Rae Chen, Teen Vogue, 22 Aug. 2017
  • Swing tackle was a sore spot for years because the Giants tried to shoehorn third-round pick Josh Ezeudu into that role.
    — Dan Duggan, New York Times, 3 Dec. 2025
  • As such, many households are now having to shoehorn payments that are hundreds of dollars in size into already snug monthly budgets.
    — Alicia Wallace, CNN, 11 Oct. 2023
  • What’s coming is a lot of products that embrace the story of Avatar, and not shoehorning in the famous mouse anywhere, at least not yet.
    — Richard Tribou, OrlandoSentinel.com, 27 Apr. 2017
  • Often, the Bard’s plays are shoehorned into a new time and place with little regard for coherent dramaturgy.
    — Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 2 Feb. 2024
  • That bill was watered down, however, and eventually got shoehorned into the one that passed Friday.
    — Kristi Swartz, AJC.com, 7 Mar. 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'shoehorn.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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