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 • Oct. 10, 2025

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

Also on this fractured fairy tale’s jampacked menu are human-sized animal costumes, arcade graphics, pratfalls, pole dancing, adorable maggot puppets, Rube Goldberg designs, expressionist sequences and even a bar brawl with rodents.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 15, 2024

With enough proteins, you can form "sentences" — in this case, biological pathways that are a little like microscopic Rube Goldberg machines that allow life to do, well, everything.

From Salon • Mar. 1, 2023

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