close vs shoehorn

close

verb
  • To come or gather around; to enclose; to encompass; to confine. 

  • To move to a position allowing electricity to flow. 

  • To have a vector sum of 0; that is, to form a closed polygon. 

  • To move to a position preventing fluid from flowing. 

  • To cancel or reverse (a trading position). 

  • To make (e.g. a gap) smaller. 

  • To make a sale. 

  • To move so that an opening is closed. 

  • To grapple; to engage in close combat. 

  • To make the final outs, usually three, of a game. 

  • To terminate an application, window, file or database connection, etc. 

  • To come to an end. 

  • To put an end to; to conclude; to complete; to finish; to consummate. 

  • To obstruct (an opening). 

  • To do the tasks (putting things away, locking doors, etc.) required to prepare a store or other establishment to shut down for the night. 

  • To turn off; to switch off. 

adj
  • Adhering strictly to a standard or original; exact. 

  • Marked, evident. 

  • Intimate; well-loved. 

  • Strictly confined; carefully guarded. 

  • Accurate; careful; precise; also, attentive; undeviating; strict. 

  • Almost, but not quite (getting to an answer or goal); near 

  • Oppressive; without motion or ventilation; causing a feeling of lassitude. 

  • At a little distance; near. 

  • Of a corporation or other business entity, closely held. 

  • Hot, humid, with no wind. 

  • Articulated with the tongue body relatively close to the hard palate. 

  • Narrow; confined. 

  • Short. 

  • Nearly equal; almost evenly balanced. 

noun
  • The common staircase in a tenement. 

  • A cathedral close. 

  • The interest which one may have in a piece of ground, even though it is not enclosed 

  • The point at the end of a sales pitch when the consumer is asked to buy. 

  • The conclusion of a strain of music; cadence. 

  • A very narrow alley between two buildings, often overhung by one of the buildings above the ground floor. 

  • An end or conclusion. 

  • A grapple in wrestling. 

  • The manner of shutting; the union of parts; junction. 

  • The time when checkin staff will no longer accept passengers for a flight. 

  • A double bar marking the end. 

  • A street that ends in a dead end. 

shoehorn

verb
  • 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. 

  • To use a shoehorn. 

  • To force some current event into alignment with some (usually unconnected) agenda, especially when it is fallacious. 

noun
  • A smooth tool that assists in putting the foot into a shoe, by sliding the heel in after the toe is in place. This reduces discomfort and damage to the back of the shoe. By slipping it into the back of the shoe behind the heel, the user prevents the heel from squashing down the back of the shoe and causing difficulty; instead the heel slides down the smooth shoehorn, which then comes out easily once the foot is in place. 

  • Anything by which a transaction is facilitated; a medium. 

How often have the words close and shoehorn occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )