Definitions
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Producing or designed to produce
strict conformity by ruthless or arbitrary means. - adjective Marked by
arbitrary often ruthlessdisregard of individual differences or special circumstances.
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word procrustean.
Examples
-
“Of what, I did not know” is a stock procrustean device to fill out the stanza.
Taste Tests, Thomas Hardy, Peter Van Toorn and consistent reception 2009
-
Darkman - I object to your procrustean analysis re: obscure words not being a sign of cleverness, if not wit.
-
Not so wise is the agency gazing into a technological crystal ball and trying to force innovation to conform to its procrustean vision.
FCC vs. Innovation Jr. Holman W. Jenkins 2011
-
Once the bridge was negotiated, I saw the slow rise of a hill, carefully manicured on both sides of a narrow walkway with procrustean green fields, dotted in places by crabapple trees that attracted fleets of frenzied wasps when the season fermented in sick sweetness, falling fruit mashed muted viridian in streaks and lopsided buttons across the sidewalk.
-
Experience shows us that visual SF is a procrustean genre and source material that does not fit its needs will be altered until it does.
MIND MELD: What Makes a Successful SciFi/Fantasy Book Adaptation? Why Do Some Fail? 2008
-
Obviously it cannot be made to fit the procrustean bed he has made.
Toronto’s plea for streetcar funds rejected « Stephen Rees's blog 2009
-
Obviously it cannot be made to fit the procrustean bed he has made.
-
Such procrustean bed reasoning is why so many individuals had to be sacrificed to the zeitgeist.
Hours Worked in Europe vs. the U.S., Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009
-
By melding various aesthetics in a quest for objectivity that ends up being more procrustean than coherent, the editors produce lists that feel, to me at least, almost random.
00 Movies 2009
-
By melding various aesthetics in a quest for objectivity that ends up being more procrustean than coherent, the editors produce lists that feel, to me at least, almost random.
Archive 2009-12-01 2009
tankexmortis commented on the word procrustean
For others who were curious about the method of torture referred to: "Procrustes (the stretcher), also known as Damastes (subduer) and Polypemon (harming much), is a figure from Greek mythology. He was a bandit from Attica, with a stronghold in the hills outside Eleusis. There, he had an iron bed into which he invited every passerby to lie down. If the guest proved too tall, he would amputate the excess length; victims who were too short were stretched on the rack until they were long enough. Nobody ever fit in the bed because it was secretly adjustable: Procrustes would stretch or shrink it upon sizing his victims from afar."
From Wikipedia, naturally.
August 7, 2008