Definitions
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Gr. Antiq.) A celebrated legendary highwayman of Attica, who tied his victims upon an iron bed, and, as the case required, either stretched or cut of their legs to adapt them to its length; -- whence the metaphorical phrase, the bed of Procrustes.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- proper noun A celebrated legendary
highwayman of Attica, who tied his victims upon an iron bed, and, as the case required, either stretched or cut off their legs to adapt them to its length.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun (Greek mythology) a mythical giant who was a thief and murderer; he would capture people and tie them to an iron bed, stretching them or hacking off their legs to make them fit; was killed by Theseus
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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And therefore he is called Procrustes, the stretcher.
The Ontario Readers Third Book Ontario. Ministry of Education
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And therefore he is called Procrustes the stretcher, though his father called him Damastes.
Types of Children's Literature Walter Barnes
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Here lived the giant Damastes, called Procrustes or the
Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome E.M. Berens
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And therefore he is called Procrustes the stretcher, though his father called him Damastes.
Heroes, or Greek Fairy Tales for My Children Charles Kingsley 1847
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One of these evil-doers was called Procrustes, or the Stretcher.
The Age of Fable Thomas Bulfinch 1831
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One of these evil-doers was called Procrustes, or the Stretcher.
The Age of Fable Thomas Bulfinch 1831
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Mittie jerked away from the hand laid upon her with no velvet pressure, without opening her lips, but the guilty blood rising to her face spoke eloquently; though she had a kind of Procrustes bed of her own, according to which she stretched or curtailed the truth, she had not the hardihood to tell an unmitigated falsehood, in the presence of her brother, too, and in the light of his truth-beaming eye.
Helen and Arthur or, Miss Thusa's Spinning Wheel Caroline Lee Hentz 1828
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But in 1817 Hazlitt had all the odds against him when he stood up and accused the great Dr. Johnson of having made criticism 'a kind of Procrustes 'bed of genius, where he might cut down imagination to matter-of-fact, regulate the passions according to reason, and translate the whole into logical diagrams and rhetorical declamation'.
Characters of Shakespeare's Plays William Hazlitt 1804
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Nor is this all; for being conscious of great powers in himself, and those powers of an adverse tendency to those of his author, he would be for setting up a foreign jurisdiction over poetry, and making criticism a kind of Procrustes 'bed of genius, where he might cut down imagination to matter-of-fact, regulate the passions according to reason, and translate the whole into logical diagrams and rhetorical declamation.
Characters of Shakespeare's Plays William Hazlitt 1804
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One of his latest works, The Bed of Procrustes, is not officially about finance at all, but full of "philosophical and practical aphorisms."
Vivian Norris: A Walk Through Paris With Nassim Nicholas Taleb Vivian Norris 2011
ruzuzu commented on the word Procrustes
Eek.
November 3, 2010