Rube Goldberg
adjective
having a fantastically complicated, improvised appearance.
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Rube Goldberg
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Goldberg, Rube
Goldberg, RubeA twentieth-century American cartoonist and sculptor. He was famous for his humorous diagrams of incredibly intricate machines designed to carry out simple tasks.
Rube Goldberg
American
Also
Rube Goldbergian.
adjective
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having a fantastically complicated, improvised appearance.
a Rube Goldberg arrangement of flasks and test tubes.
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deviously complex and impractical.
a Rube Goldberg scheme for reducing taxes.
Goldberg, Rube
Cultural
Discover More
A “Rube Goldberg contraption” is a machine with many apparently extraneous parts, which appears to have been designed by patchwork.
Etymology
Origin of Rube Goldberg
1955–60; after Rube ( Reuben ) Goldberg
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The pair devised an instrument they called Tonto, a 12-foot-long collection of synthesizer modules connected by cables—“the finest of Rube Goldberg machines.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 26, 2026
This, of course, is an example of a Rube Goldberg machine—an overly complex mechanism that performs a simple task.
From Barron's ● May 14, 2026
When ARID1A is mutated, a microscopic chain of events analogous to a Rube Goldberg machine is set off in the cancer cell.
From Science Daily ● May 15, 2024
For more than a half century, through live performances seemingly born of the marriage of Mozart, the Marx Brothers and Rube Goldberg; prizewinning recordings; and even a book-length biography, P.D.Q.
From New York Times ● Jan. 17, 2024
Jessie had built the water wall along the eastern facade of the brownstone, inspired by a science class during which her teacher showed them different cartoons of Rube Goldberg machines.
From "The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street" by Karina Yan Glaser
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
