procrustean

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.

The wild variety of American life can never be clamped down on the Procrustean bed of a single form of schooling.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 9, 2026

But there was a danger in trying to fit this new, American elite onto the Procrustean bed of every elite that had come before it.

From The Guardian • Mar. 3, 2020

There is grandeur in this new view of life, so why force it into the Procrustean bed of nineteenth-century theorizing?

From Scientific American • Jun. 15, 2019

It’s a modern version of the Procrustean bed, and the people no longer have a say.

From New York Times • Jun. 28, 2016

Facts and events presenting novelty and variety are slighted, or are sheared down till they fit into the Procrustean bed of habitual belief.

From How We Think by Dewey, John