Rube Goldbergn.
/ruːb ˈɡəʊl(d)bəːɡ/, U.S. /rub ˈɡoʊl(d)ˌbərɡ/ North American.
attributive. Designating a device or scheme that achieves a simple objective by exaggeratedly or absurdly complex means; unnecessarily complicated, impracticable, or ingenious. Cf. Heath Robinson n.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > lack of understanding > foolishness, folly > absurdity, incongruity > [adjective]
impertinenta1425
royeta1522
absurd1531
preposterous1533
ridiculous1533
deaf?1541
monstrous?1549
fabulous1561
fanatical1598
fantastical1600
laughable1600
fantasticc1616
nonsense1621
arsy-versy1628
absonous1642
nonsensical1645
ridicule?1669
fancical1671
grotesque1747
rich1836
saugrenu1876
laughsome1884
cockeyed1894
hilarious1925
Rube Goldberg1928
whimsy-whamsy1931
Rube Goldbergian1933
cockamamie1941
fantasticated1960
fanciful-
1928 N.Y. Times 10 Feb. 26/3 He then introduces the Fuller Construction Orchestra, which is one of those Rube Goldberg crazy mechanical elaborations.
1933 Amer. Mercury May 85/1 He brought forward a Rube Goldberg scheme for selling..Prosperity Bonds to wealthy Pennsylvanians.
1956 C. S. Rice & R. C. Steinmetz Amish Year 69 The whole Rube Goldberg device is hitched to a wire which runs through ringbolts attached to short poles stuck in the ground, all the way to the house.
1978 Nature 9 Nov. 122/3 Orchids are Rube Goldberg machines; a perfect engineer would certainly have come up with something better.
1996 High Country News 11 Nov. 1/3 The..critics in the room..delight in criticizing the Rube Goldberg nature of the design.
Derivatives
Rube Goldˈbergian adj.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > lack of understanding > foolishness, folly > absurdity, incongruity > [adjective]
impertinenta1425
royeta1522
absurd1531
preposterous1533
ridiculous1533
deaf?1541
monstrous?1549
fabulous1561
fanatical1598
fantastical1600
laughable1600
fantasticc1616
nonsense1621
arsy-versy1628
absonous1642
nonsensical1645
ridicule?1669
fancical1671
grotesque1747
rich1836
saugrenu1876
laughsome1884
cockeyed1894
hilarious1925
Rube Goldberg1928
whimsy-whamsy1931
Rube Goldbergian1933
cockamamie1941
fantasticated1960
fanciful-
1915 Vanity Fair Aug. 53/3 The Goldbergian answer would be ‘No, I paint my nose and eyes red every day to frighten the gypsy-moths away.’]
1933 E. B. White in New Yorker 14 Oct. 13/3 The big stores have devised a Rube Goldbergian system for keeping a customer from the eventual possession of the coveted object.
1991 Philadelphia Inquirer 3 May d3/4 The oil industry provided Rube Goldbergian ice-cutting machinery that didn't work.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2011; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
<
n.1928