Procrustes n. (Gr. Antiq.) A celebrated legendary highwayman of Attica, who tied his victims upon an iron bed, and, as the case required, either stretched or cut of their legs to adapt them to its length; whence the metaphorical phrase, the bed of Procrustes.
... "The bed of Procrustes, madam, was a bed to which all who lay upon it had to be conformed. Those that were too long were made short; and those that were too short were made long. It is a pleasant ... — Come Rack! Come Rope! • Robert Hugh Benson
...
