- 1
A shoehorn is a small curved tool, usually plastic or metal, that you slide into the back of a shoe so your heel goes in without crushing the shoe. Old ones were made of real animal horn, which is how it got the second half of its name. People also use shoehorn as a verb: to shoehorn something in is to force it into a space that is really too small, the way you force a foot into a tight shoe. That verb is common in everyday talk and in the news: they shoehorned three extra meetings into the afternoon. The tool is ordinary household English; the verb is a little informal and often a bit critical — you are squeezing something in where it does not quite belong.
鞋拔
原始詞典資料6 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
shoehornnoun/ˈʃuːˌhɔːn/
- 1
A smooth tool that assists in putting the foot into a shoe, by sliding the heel in after the toe is in place.
- 2
derogatoryAnything by which a transaction is facilitated; a medium.
- I was about sixty feet ahead of this film in many spots, which speaks rather poorly for it. And I resented the heartthrobs which were planted in my bosom with a shoehorn via the "little child" process.
- 3
obsoleteAnything which draws on or allures; an inducement.
- Now you cannot but observe, that most of our fine young Ladies readily fall in with the Direction of the Graver sort, to retain in their Service, by some small Encouragement, as great a Number as they can of supernumerary and insignificant Fellows, which they use like Whiflers, and commonly call Shoeing-Horns. These are never designed to know the length of the Foot, but only when a good Offer comes to whet and spur him up to the Point. Nay 'tis the Opinion of that grave Lady, Madam Matchwell, that it's absolutely convenient for every prudent Family to have several of these Implements about the House, to clap on as occasion serves, and that every Spark ought to produce a Certificate of his being a Shoeing-Horn, before he be admitted as a Shoe. A certain Lady, whom I could name, if it was necessary, has at present more Shoeing-Horns of all Sizes, Countries, and Colours, in her Service, than ever she had new Shoes in her Life.
shoehornverb/ˈʃuːˌhɔːn/
- 1
To use a shoehorn.
- 2
To force (something) into (a tight space); to squeeze (something) into (a schedule, etc); to exert great effort to insert or include (something); to include (something) despite potent reasons not to.
- I shoehorned his dozen burgeoning bags into the backseat of my tiny car, and off we went.
- His staff want to shoehorn an extra stop into his already packed campaigning schedule.
- 3
To force some current event into alignment with some (usually unconnected) agenda, especially when it is fallacious.
- People claiming to be psychic may shoehorn an event into fulfillment of some vague past prediction.
- After the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, fundamentalist Christian evangelists Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson shoehorned the events to their agenda. They claimed that "liberal civil liberties groups, feminists, homosexuals and abortion rights supporters bear partial responsibility...because their actions have turned [my] god's anger against America."
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。