shoehorn

noun

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. (derogatory)Anything 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. (obsolete)Anything which draws on or allures; an inducement.

verb

1. (literally)To use a shoehorn.
2. (figuratively, transitive)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.”

   “2012, The Economist, Oct 13th 2012 issue, Italian politics: Who will be Italy’s next prime minister? A member of Mr Monti’s government admitted that, barring a hung parliament, it was impossible for the moment to see how Mr Monti could be shoehorned into politics after next spring.”

3. (figuratively, transitive)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."”