Contraption
noun
A device or machine that looks strange or unnecessarily complicated, and often made for a specific task.
John built a contraption to automatically feed his fish.
Often appears as...
- strange contraption
- mechanical contraption
noun
A device or machine that looks strange or unnecessarily complicated, and often made for a specific task.
John built a contraption to automatically feed his fish.
Often appears as...
- strange contraption
- mechanical contraption
Definition 1 of 1
Pro Tip 1/3Inventive Creations
Contraptions are often handmade or improvised, showing inventiveness rather than bought from a store.
She used a contraption made of old pipes to water her garden.
Pro Tip 2/3Slightly Amusing
'Contraption' often hints that the device is odd, quirky, or amusing in its complexity or appearance.
His bicycle had a contraption attached to hold an umbrella overhead.
Pro Tip 3/3Functional Specificity
A contraption is usually designed for a specific function, possibly one that no regular device performs.
The gardener built a contraption to scare away crows.
Pro Tip 1/3Inventive Creations
Contraptions are often handmade or improvised, showing inventiveness rather than bought from a store.
She used a contraption made of old pipes to water her garden.
Pro Tip 2/3Slightly Amusing
'Contraption' often hints that the device is odd, quirky, or amusing in its complexity or appearance.
His bicycle had a contraption attached to hold an umbrella overhead.
Pro Tip 3/3Functional Specificity
A contraption is usually designed for a specific function, possibly one that no regular device performs.
The gardener built a contraption to scare away crows.
Pro Tip 1/3Inventive Creations
Contraptions are often handmade or improvised, showing inventiveness rather than bought from a store.
She used a contraption made of old pipes to water her garden.
Pro Tip 2/3Slightly Amusing
'Contraption' often hints that the device is odd, quirky, or amusing in its complexity or appearance.
His bicycle had a contraption attached to hold an umbrella overhead.
Pro Tip 3/3Functional Specificity
A contraption is usually designed for a specific function, possibly one that no regular device performs.
The gardener built a contraption to scare away crows.
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Video examples
4 Adorable Animals That...
that's relatively understudied and they're in the middle of building research then throughout this that we can actually go over and we can monitor these guys in the world which would be incredible so that'd be lovely once it's all done now was this useful this contraption thing here they've basically old-school zoo keeping if an animal was
Video examples
Terry Hunt and Carl...
what it takes to make and move statues around so we started to explore that generally speaking the archaeological what archaeological explanations for how statues remove all involve one form or another some kind of wooden contraption and this connections with a contraption or some kind of wooden is really important for the the sort of
Video examples
Steven Levitt on child...
And if you think from a design perspective, about going back to square one, and say, "I just want to protect kids in the back seat." I don't there's anyone in this room who'd say, "Well, the right way to start would be, let's make a great seat belt for adults. And then, let's make this really big contraption
Video examples
The Real-Life MacGyver...
have here at netgeo and follow them to the edges of our big weird beautiful world you've seen our magazine stunning photos this week we go behind the scenes in the workshop that makes them possible we'll follow our photo engineer as he builds a contraption designed to photograph something
Video examples
The real reason for...
no other reason to have a brain think about it movement is the only way you have of affecting the world around you that's not quite true there's one other way and that's through sweating but apart from that everything else goes through contraptions of muscles you think about
Video examples
How centuries of sci-fi...
in which he expounded his own personal view of the cosmographical nature of the universe. In his stories, he would describe in fantastical technical detail machines and contraptions, and nowhere was he more influential in this than in his short story,
Video examples
My journey mapping the...
complete with location, speed and other vital layers of data. I adapted that camera to sit on a backpack I could carry, and with the help of a few more contraptions, we were able to mount it to the dash of a helicopter, the bow of a speedboat
Video examples
Into the Ocean PIPE...
mr trash wheel the inner harbor water wheel affectionately known as mr trash wheel sits at the outlet of the jones falls river that's where we found john collette the engineer behind this innovative contraption welcome aboard mr trash wheel
Video examples
How to rebuild the world...
like some kind of crazy steampunk post-apocalyptic Mad Max contraption but it works and this isn't some kind of Fringe hobby during the oil shortages of the Second World War there are over a
Video examples
The biology of gender,...
You can think of it like inside our cells, there's different contraptions building things, connecting circuits, doing all the things they need to make life happen.
Video examples
4 Adorable Animals That...
that's relatively understudied and they're in the middle of building research then throughout this that we can actually go over and we can monitor these guys in the world which would be incredible so that'd be lovely once it's all done now was this useful this contraption thing here they've basically old-school zoo keeping if an animal was
Video examples
Terry Hunt and Carl...
what it takes to make and move statues around so we started to explore that generally speaking the archaeological what archaeological explanations for how statues remove all involve one form or another some kind of wooden contraption and this connections with a contraption or some kind of wooden is really important for the the sort of
Video examples
Steven Levitt on child...
And if you think from a design perspective, about going back to square one, and say, "I just want to protect kids in the back seat." I don't there's anyone in this room who'd say, "Well, the right way to start would be, let's make a great seat belt for adults. And then, let's make this really big contraption
Video examples
The Real-Life MacGyver...
have here at netgeo and follow them to the edges of our big weird beautiful world you've seen our magazine stunning photos this week we go behind the scenes in the workshop that makes them possible we'll follow our photo engineer as he builds a contraption designed to photograph something
Video examples
The real reason for...
no other reason to have a brain think about it movement is the only way you have of affecting the world around you that's not quite true there's one other way and that's through sweating but apart from that everything else goes through contraptions of muscles you think about
Video examples
How centuries of sci-fi...
in which he expounded his own personal view of the cosmographical nature of the universe. In his stories, he would describe in fantastical technical detail machines and contraptions, and nowhere was he more influential in this than in his short story,
Video examples
My journey mapping the...
complete with location, speed and other vital layers of data. I adapted that camera to sit on a backpack I could carry, and with the help of a few more contraptions, we were able to mount it to the dash of a helicopter, the bow of a speedboat
Video examples
Into the Ocean PIPE...
mr trash wheel the inner harbor water wheel affectionately known as mr trash wheel sits at the outlet of the jones falls river that's where we found john collette the engineer behind this innovative contraption welcome aboard mr trash wheel
Video examples
How to rebuild the world...
like some kind of crazy steampunk post-apocalyptic Mad Max contraption but it works and this isn't some kind of Fringe hobby during the oil shortages of the Second World War there are over a
Video examples
The biology of gender,...
You can think of it like inside our cells, there's different contraptions building things, connecting circuits, doing all the things they need to make life happen.
Example 1 of 10
Quote examples
Billy Gibbons
American Musician
The rawness and the richness of music on vinyl almost went away, but it still seems to be on a lot of people's radar, and for good reason. It does something different than more accessible means of music playing, like MP3 players and downloads and whatnot. You get in front of these archaic contraptions that go 'round and 'round.
Quote examples
Philip Reeve
British Author
My first encounter with science fiction was reading the work of H.G. Wells when I was nine or ten, and I don't believe 'The War of the Worlds' or 'The Time Machine' have ever been bettered. Plus, I have always had a liking for Victorian and Edwardian clothes and contraptions, which tends to color the worlds I dream up.
Quote examples
Lawrence M. Krauss
American Physicist
Neutrinos alone, among all the known particles, have ethereal properties that are striking and romantic enough both to have inspired a poem by John Updike and to have sent teams of scientists deep underground for 50 years to build huge science-fiction-like contraptions to unravel their mysteries.
Quote examples
Alastair Reynolds
British Author
As a kid, I'd buy novels with these magnificent Chris Fosse covers which showed an enormous contraption hovering over a planet, and you'd always think 'Where's that going to come in?' And it never did! It was always slightly disappointing when the contents of a book never lived up to the cover.
Quote examples
Nick Park
British Director
Wallace and Gromit's contraptions are created purely for gags, but we all have the urge to invent - especially children. If they're bored, kids will make something from cardboard boxes, yoghurt pots, tape and elastic bands. Often, those constructions are the best.
Quote examples
Arnold Palmer
American Golfer
I've stated my position, and that is that we do not need a contraption to play the game of golf. I would hope that we'd play under one set of rules, and those rules would include a ban on the long putter hooked to the body in some way, shape or form.
Quote examples
Joy Mangano
American Inventor
Inventing is something that has always come very natural to me. As a child, I was always fiddling with things, making contraptions. I'd see something, go home, and try to make something even better.
Quote examples
David Linley
British Royalty
My father and I share a passion for how things work, which in my case took the form of schoolboy fascination with machines and mechanical contraptions.
Quote examples
Henri Poincare
French Mathematician
Invention consists in avoiding the constructing of useless contraptions and in constructing the useful combinations which are in infinite minority.
Quote examples
Tom Waits
American Musician
Music has generally involved a lot of awkward contraptions, a certain amount of heavy lifting.
Quote examples
Billy Gibbons
American Musician
The rawness and the richness of music on vinyl almost went away, but it still seems to be on a lot of people's radar, and for good reason. It does something different than more accessible means of music playing, like MP3 players and downloads and whatnot. You get in front of these archaic contraptions that go 'round and 'round.
Quote examples
Philip Reeve
British Author
My first encounter with science fiction was reading the work of H.G. Wells when I was nine or ten, and I don't believe 'The War of the Worlds' or 'The Time Machine' have ever been bettered. Plus, I have always had a liking for Victorian and Edwardian clothes and contraptions, which tends to color the worlds I dream up.
Quote examples
Lawrence M. Krauss
American Physicist
Neutrinos alone, among all the known particles, have ethereal properties that are striking and romantic enough both to have inspired a poem by John Updike and to have sent teams of scientists deep underground for 50 years to build huge science-fiction-like contraptions to unravel their mysteries.
Quote examples
Alastair Reynolds
British Author
As a kid, I'd buy novels with these magnificent Chris Fosse covers which showed an enormous contraption hovering over a planet, and you'd always think 'Where's that going to come in?' And it never did! It was always slightly disappointing when the contents of a book never lived up to the cover.
Quote examples
Nick Park
British Director
Wallace and Gromit's contraptions are created purely for gags, but we all have the urge to invent - especially children. If they're bored, kids will make something from cardboard boxes, yoghurt pots, tape and elastic bands. Often, those constructions are the best.
Quote examples
Arnold Palmer
American Golfer
I've stated my position, and that is that we do not need a contraption to play the game of golf. I would hope that we'd play under one set of rules, and those rules would include a ban on the long putter hooked to the body in some way, shape or form.
Quote examples
Joy Mangano
American Inventor
Inventing is something that has always come very natural to me. As a child, I was always fiddling with things, making contraptions. I'd see something, go home, and try to make something even better.
Quote examples
David Linley
British Royalty
My father and I share a passion for how things work, which in my case took the form of schoolboy fascination with machines and mechanical contraptions.
Quote examples
Henri Poincare
French Mathematician
Invention consists in avoiding the constructing of useless contraptions and in constructing the useful combinations which are in infinite minority.
Quote examples
Tom Waits
American Musician
Music has generally involved a lot of awkward contraptions, a certain amount of heavy lifting.
Example 1 of 10
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