Rube Goldberg machine

Rube Goldberg machine

English

Etymology

A Rube Goldberg machine which makes orange juice.

Named for Rube Goldberg, an American cartoonist, who drew up many such machines.

Noun

Rube Goldberg machine (plural Rube Goldberg machines)

1. (US) A comical, overcomplicated machine which performs a simple task.
2. (by extension) Anything that is overly complicated.
   • 2017 August 27, Brandon Nowalk, “Game Of Thrones slows down for the longest, and best, episode of the season (newbies)”, in The Onion AV Club‎:

     To be overly cynical myself, that is still the macro view. Littlefinger’s execution and the white walkers passing through the rubble of the Wall are just two observations that this enormous Rube Goldberg machine is running on time.

Translations

comically overcomplicated machine

Chinese: Mandarin: 魯布·戈德堡機械 Dutch: Rube Goldbergmachine French: usine à gaz (fr) German: Rube-Goldberg-Maschine

Hungarian: Rube Goldberg-gép (hu) Japanese: ルーブ・ゴールドバーグ・マシン; ピタゴラスイッチ (pitagora suicchi) Spanish: Máquina de Rube Goldberg Swedish: Rube Goldberg-maskin Turkish: Rube Goldberg makinesi; Zihni Sinir Proceleri

See also

• Heath Robinson (UK)