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

See Examples For:

Procrustean bed

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

A certain set of highly ingenious resources are, with the Prefect, a sort of Procrustean bed to which he forcibly adapts his designs.

From Selections from Poe by Gambrill, J. Montgomery