Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Of, relating to, or being a contrivance that brings about by complicated means what apparently could have been accomplished simply.
WordNet 3.0
- n. United States cartoonist who drew intricate diagrams of very complicated and impractical contraptions that accomplished little or nothing (1883-1970)
Etymologies
- After Reuben Lucius ("Rube”) Goldberg (1883-1970), American cartoonist noted for his intricate diagrams of such contrivances. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Like Fairweather’s Rube Goldberg drawing, the immune system seems booby-trapped with control mechanisms that, when breached, cause the body to go haywire.”
“The United Nations Development Programme UNDP calls this Rube Goldberg machine a “multifunctional platform.””
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘Rube Goldberg’.
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It's Complicated
Words about complication, complexity.
nookshotten, finicky, challenging, intricate, complex, complication, involved, elaborate, labyrinthine, involute, sophisticated, tangled and 21 more...
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spicolli's Words
terrapin, ravenous, fuck, sepulchral, garlic, suss, queer, curmudgeon, foodie, intricate, omphalos, subversion and 534 more...
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gre
couth, beguiling, ballyhoo, calamitous, homily, largesse, detritus, Rube Goldberg, culicide, Luddite, drawl, gentrification and 5 more...
Tweets
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