Word.ws English Dictionary

Procrustes

Procrustes proper noun: a celebrated legendary highwayman of Attica, who tied his victims upon an iron bed, and, as the case required, either stretched or cut off their legs to adapt them to its length.

Proper noun

Procrustes

  1. (Greek) A celebrated legendary highwayman of Attica, who tied his victims upon an iron bed, and, as the case required, either stretched or cut off their legs to adapt them to its length.

Origin of Procrustes

Borrowed from Ancient Greek Προκρούστης (Prokroústēs).

Words formed from Procrustes

Questions about Procrustes

What does Procrustes mean?
Procrustes means a celebrated legendary highwayman of Attica, who tied his victims upon an iron bed, and, as the case required, either stretched or cut off their legs to adapt them to its length.
What part of speech is Procrustes?
Procrustes is a proper noun.

Words near Procrustes in the dictionary

  1. procrusteanize
  2. procrusteanized
  3. procrusteanizes
  4. procrusteanizing
  5. procrusteanly
  6. Procrustes
  7. Procrustesian
  8. procryptic
  9. procryptically
  10. procrystalline
  11. procs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Procrustes (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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