Rube Goldberg

Also Rube Goldbergian.

adjective

1. having a fantastically complicated, improvised appearance.

   a Rube Goldberg arrangement of flasks and test tubes.

2. deviously complex and impractical.

   a Rube Goldberg scheme for reducing taxes.

Goldberg, Rube

1. A twentieth-century American cartoonist and sculptor. He was famous for his humorous diagrams of incredibly intricate machines designed to carry out simple tasks.

A “Rube Goldberg contraption” is a machine with many apparently extraneous parts, which appears to have been designed by patchwork.

Word History and Origins

Origin of Goldberg, Rube¹

1955–60; after Rube ( Reuben ) Goldberg