Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Of, relating to, or being a contrivance that brings about by complicated means what apparently could have been accomplished simply.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun United States cartoonist who drew intricate diagrams of very complicated and impractical contraptions that accomplished little or nothing (1883-1970)
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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Such overly complex contraptions have become known as Rube Goldberg devices and every year there are even contests held in his honor where people construct machines with go through a myriad of often unrelated steps to do simple tasks such as turning on a light switch.
Canada Free Press 2010
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The name Rube Goldberg is synonymous with machines that perform the simplest of everyday tasks in a complex and indirect manner-in fact, it is listed in the dictionary as an adjective with such a definition.
mental_floss Blog 2009
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Also, Purdue University holds an annual national competition called the "Rube Goldberg Machine Contest."
The Rube Under the Bed Ralph Gardner Jr. 2011
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The whole project is delightfully Rube Goldberg, which is of course why we love it.
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Syyn's first official project was to help build the complex series of chain reactions that performed simple tasks -- known as a Rube Goldberg machine after the legendary cartoonist who devised the concept -- at the heart of indie rock band OK Go's "This Too Shall Pass" video.
Boing Boing Mark Frauenfelder 2011
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(aka MegaRan) will perform, with interactive installations from Andreas Stadler and Syyn Labs, the engineering whiz kids behind the OK Go 'Rube Goldberg'-inspired music video.
Boing Boing 2010
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Goldberg is best known for a series of popular cartoons he created depicting complex devices that perform simple tasks in indirect, convoluted ways - now known as Rube Goldberg machines.
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Goldberg is best known for a series of popular cartoons he created depicting complex devices that perform simple tasks in indirect, convoluted ways - now known as Rube Goldberg machines.
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The "Rube Goldberg" monstrosity of a Bill that will be enacted will be portrayed as "reform".
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What kind of Rube Goldberg contraption is this thing going to be?
dinkum commented on the word Rube Goldberg
WORD: Rube Goldberg
DEFINITION: See the Wikipedia article "Rube Goldberg machine."
EXAMPLE: ' There were some obvious problems. One, Project Mercury was a civilian program; two, NASA had not yet developed the rockets or the capsule to carry it out; three, it involved no flying, at least not in the sense a pilot used that word. The Mercury capsule was not a ship but a can. Not only did it involve no flying, there wasn't even a window to look out of. There wasn't even a hatch you could egress from like a man; it would take a crew of swabbos* with lug wrenches to get out of the thing. It was a can. Suppose you volunteered and got tied up in the project for two or three years, and then the whole thing fizzled? That was entirely possible, because this rocket-and-capsule system was novel and had a lot of Rube Goldberg stuff in it. '
--- 1979. TOM WOLFE. The Right Stuff. "Chapter 4 -- The Lab Rat." (Page 69). Bantam Book edition (ISBN 0-553-27556-9).
* EDITORIAL NOTE: Wordnik does not have a definition for swabbo. Nor does Wiktionary. Nor does the OED. OneLook wasn't any help either. Given the context, I would hazard that "swabbo" is a variant of "swabby." Possibly, a portmanteau word which combines "swabby" with "yabbo."
January 31, 2014