| inf. |
a device or machine that looks awkward or old-fashioned, especially one that you do not know how to use (What's that strange contraption in the garage?  cambridge.org); an awkward or old-fashioned looking device or machine (The entire contraption is not only cumbersome, but also often internally contradictory. • An alderman bought the house, cheaply in view of the unusual charge, and promptly called in experts to inspect the contraption. • If you see a guy who’s always filthy and mucking about with some loud, old contraption, I can see how you might assume that guy has some clue what he’s doing. cambridge.org); a piece of equipment or machinery that looks funny, strange, and unlikely to work well (It's a contraption for washing windows on tall buildings. • The lave net was a simple but very effective contraption for catching salmon. • Early cameras were large and expensive contraptions. • Above all, why were these chaps messing around with helium-filled contraptions, in an age of routine rocketry? • By demonstrating his floating contraption - part surfboard, part kayak and part sailboard - Halfon hopes to create a tide of attention. • Show him you are sensitive to his needs with a gift certificate to that utopia of contraptions, Sharper Image. • He must negotiate puzzles, spring boards, buttons and other contraptions laying in his path. • No one place in the contraption governs walking. • After which Nakki, to my delight, hailed an auto-rickshaw. Seven of us squeezed into this contraption, which wheezed along at about ten miles an hour, coughing blue fumes. There was a good deal of price hagghng before we got in and a httle more at journey’s end. • The steam engine is an unthinkable contraption without the domesticating loop of the revolving governor. ldoceonline.com); machine or device that appears strange or unnecessarily complicated, and often badly made or unsafe (repairing stereos and making contraptions out of spare electronic bits • There are the flying machines and steam contraptions, technology from a fantastic version of the industrial age. • You find strange contraptions made of rubber and metal lying around in the basement. • Neither of them wore gear and they were using some sort of strange cardboard contraptions as nets but they were wearing skates and they had sticks in their hands. • For example, the machines might resemble the contraptions used by the state lottery agencies to determine winning numbers. • It was at least twice as big as a normal airplane hangar, with strange looking contraptions flying about. • Giant machines and preternatural contraptions can dominate the landscape. • His shoes were strange contraptions bound in metal strips and leather ties. • Also displayed are two power-gliders, which are two-seater contraptions powered by small engines. • People taking rides on giant wheels and similar contraptions should be warned that they are taking a risk. • Sadly, none of a myriad of ingenious contraptions, despite inventors' claims, puts forth more energy than it absorbs. • Fruit machines used to be pretty simple contraptions, but you'd need a mathematics degree to operate them these days. • At first, you might think that writing about mechanical contraptions could end up being an extremely boring and dry endeavour. • Undoubtedly the contraptions and apparatuses in Keaton's films are the basis for his gags. • The mechanised contraption rattled its way over the rolling hills. • The noisy contraption of an elevator stopped once it reached the bottom of the shaft. • Some of his contraptions do not have steering wheels and he still calls them cars . • No longer the wooden contraptions of yore, they are powered by large diesel sets. • It took old-fashioned rocket science to put the contraption into orbit on September 27 last year. • Bodies were needed to carry the contraption, for it had no wheels. • A flood light granted sight to the strangest mechanical contraption any of them had ever seen. lexico.com); a machine that is complicated and precarious (wiktionary.org) |
| ironic., disappr. |
a device or contrivance, esp one considered strange, unnecessarily intricate, or improvised (often facetious or derogatory: The batteries go in a backpack, the motors sit outside her legs, and the whole contraption is expensive. • The gold medallist is only a tad higher up than the others and the whole contraption's only a few inches tall. collinsdictionary.com); any object (figuratively, derogatory or ironic: “Yes, sir, if that was the language of love, I'll eat my hat,” said the blood relation, alluding, I took it, to the beastly straw contraption in which she does her gardening, concerning which I can only say that it is almost as foul as Uncle Tom's Sherlock Holmes deerstalker, which has frightened more crows than any other lid in Worcestershire. wiktionary.org) |
