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.
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
Alternatively, you could see Aereo’s system as a Rube Goldberg device intended to exploit a legal technicality so as to avoid paying the licensing fees traditional cable companies pay to retransmit broadcast programming.
From Slate • Jun. 26, 2014
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
