procrustean bed

Etymology
From the Greek myth about Procrustes, who assaulted people to make their body height conform to the length of a particular iron bed; see details at .

Noun

 * 1) An arbitrary standard, especially one that is forced upon people for the sake of conformity and involves the sacrifice of what is useful.
 * 2) * 1787,, letter to dated 10October, 1787, in Letters of Anna Seward, Edinburgh: Archibald Constable, 1811, Volume1, p.342,
 * Merely to jingle common-place ideas in rhyme, may be easy enough; but to make fine sense, animated and appropriate description, and beautiful imagery, recline gracefully on that Procrustean bed, is about as easy as to compose music like Handel or Hedyen, and to paint like Reynolds, Romney, and Fuzeli.
 * 1) * 1947, Felix Frankfurter, New York v. United States, 331 U.S. 284, 353 (dissenting):
 * The Procrustean bed is not a symbol of equality.
 * 1) * 1947, Felix Frankfurter, New York v. United States, 331 U.S. 284, 353 (dissenting):
 * The Procrustean bed is not a symbol of equality.

Translations

 * Armenian: պրոկրուստյան մահիճ
 * Danish: prokrustesseng
 * Dutch:
 * Estonian: Prokrustese säng
 * Finnish: Prokrusteen vuode
 * German:
 * Hebrew:
 * Norwegian:
 * Bokmål: prokrustesseng
 * Nynorsk: prokrustesseng
 * Polish:
 * Russian: