bed of Procrustes

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.

Let the student of singing beware of the numerous impostors who claim to have a “Method,” a sort of bed of Procrustes, which the victim, whether long or short, is made to fit.

From Style in Singing by Haslam, W. E.

Ben Jonson complained that it compels all ideas, irrespective of their worth, to fill a space of exactly fourteen lines, and that it therefore operates on the same principle as the bed of Procrustes.

From Halleck's New English Literature by Halleck, Reuben Post

Think what that must be even to a man innocent of crime, and feel how far worse than the bed of Procrustes it must be to one like me.

From Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. 3, July, 1851 by Various

The stanza becomes a bed of Procrustes; and the thoughts of the unfortunate author are alternately racked and curtailed to fit their new receptacle.

From Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches — Volume 1 by Macaulay, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Baron

The seat of ideals, then, in one's mind, should be, as it were, a lounge, over which these hangings may drape and flap harmlessly; but it may easily become as the bed of Procrustes.

From Select Conversations with an Uncle (Now Extinct) And Two Other Reminiscences by Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)