Rube Goldberg

American  

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.

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Goldberg, Rube Cultural  

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.

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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

After that fall, each bout of sickness or medical procedure causes a cruel chain reaction, like a diabolical Rube Goldberg machine.

From The Wall Street Journal

Watching her execute another step in the scavenger hunt she’s devised for him is like seeing “The Rules” reimagined by Rube Goldberg.

From Salon

He is also a massive global embarrassment, the glaring flaw that proves the entire Rube Goldberg machine is no longer working.

From Salon

Come for the Rube Goldberg machines, leave feeling like a rube.

From Salon

That frenzy to create a "mini-primary" or some kind of Rube Goldberg mechanism to pick a candidate was largely based on that knee-jerk opinion.

From Salon