Rube Goldberg device
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
It’s a stupid, silly, groan-inducing out—a legislative Rube Goldberg device jerry-rigged into a perpetual motion machine.
From Slate ● Feb. 2, 2021
The utility of jokes is that they are perfectly engineered to trick minds out of ruts, manipulate thoughts in one direction or another, a Rube Goldberg device delighting through distraction.
From New York Times ● May 8, 2020
Made of scrap found in New Jersey junkyards, the massive work — 27 feet high and 23 feet in length — was supposed to be a mechanical display, sort of like a Rube Goldberg device.
From Salon ● Oct. 19, 2018
Behind the screen’s simulated 3-D workplace is an apparatus — part Rube Goldberg device, part disemboweled pinball machine.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 17, 2015
To Deloria’s way of thinking, not only overkill but the entire Clovis-first theory is a theoretical Rube Goldberg device.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
