Procrusteanadj.

1647 J. Goodwin Hagiomastix To Rdr. sig. b1v I desire..to be understood, as speaking onely of such,..who being of Gangrena's gang, and Procrustian race, breath out nothing but fire, fury, and fiercenesse against all those, who are either weaker or stronger..then themselves.

a1758 J. Hervey Wks. (1769) II. x. 347 Is a text too short, to suit their design? Our Procrustean expositors can stretch it on the rack, and lengthen its sense.

1820 Christian Observer Mar. 174/2 As if to rescue them from the procrustian operation of their interpreters, the most general terms are employed.

1857 J. Toulmin Smith Parish (new ed.) 118 For which they have cut and dried procrustean remedies ready to hand.

1872 All Year Round 12 Oct. 514/2 The aggregation of large crowds necessitates discipline—Procrustian rules—laws which know neither turning nor change!

1946 W. Ivins Art & Geom. ix. 124 Because of this we are no longer in the procrustean situation of having to tailor our observed facts to a standard invariant geometry of independently existing things.

1985 C. Jencks Mod. Movements in Archit. (ed. 2) iii. 126 On the other hand there are the designs for furniture, sculpture, and statues..where the repeated rhythmical forms become Procrustean and force natural shapes and purposes into their mould.

2004 Time Out N.Y. 22 July 51/1 This somewhat procrustean curatorial perspective results in tenuous assertions grounded in the region's importance.

1789 B. Moseley Treat. Trop. Dis. (ed. 2) Preface 12 We do not, at this day, like ancient surgeons, hang people up by their feet to beams, nor rack them on Procrustean beds, to reduce dislocations, without any regard to anatomy.

1828 Times 24 May 1/5 That species of mental torture—that Procrustean bed on which bigotry would expand or confine the consciences of men.

1848 E. C. Gaskell Mary Barton I. xv. 271 To..tie them down to their own procrustean bed.

1875 B. Jowett in tr. Plato Dialogues (ed. 2) II. 271 Neither must we attempt to confine the Platonic dialogue on the Procrustean bed of a single idea.

1904 W. Barry Newman v. 192 Between these alternatives a path..remains to be discovered by the observer who will submit..to the nature of things, instead of laying it upon a Procrustean bed.

1976 Amer. Jrnl. Psychiatry 133 108/1 The author has seen the difficulties that arise because the inexperienced therapist tries to fit patients into the Procrustean bed of his preconceived notions.

1854 J. H. Hanson Lost Prince xiii. 280 The church, if she would be useful, must adapt herself to circumstances, and eschew Procrusteanism in accidents.

1864 Edinb. Rev. July 168 The repulsive Procrusteanism of the course of instruction.

1996 D. Williams Japan & Enemies Open Polit. Sci. iv. 97 The sins of the positivist—his scientistic procrusteanism, his misplaced faith in logical and mathematical methods, his anti-classicism and his surrender to universal economic laws.