Procrustean bed

American  

Or procrustean bed

noun

1. a plan or scheme to produce uniformity or conformity by arbitrary or violent methods.

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Etymology

Origin of Procrustean bed

After Procrustes, the bandit from Greek mythology who stretched or amputated the limbs of travelers to make them conform to the length of his bed.

Example Sentences

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

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

His verdicts, moreover, remain freshly minted and remarkably perceptive, however much he crams them into the Procrustean bed of his analytical framework.

From The Guardian • Oct. 17, 2016

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

From New York Times • Jun. 28, 2016

But they had no right to tyrannise over others, and tie them down to their own Procrustean bed.

From Mary Barton by Gaskell, Elizabeth Cleghorn