complex contraption
- noun
- Informal
:
artefacto complejo
- No one understood how the complex contraption in the garage was supposed to work.
Examples
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We spent hours trying to assemble the complex contraption according to the manual.
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The inventor presented a complex contraption that could perform multiple tasks at once.
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That complex contraption in the corner looks confusing.
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The engineer designed a complex contraption for the project.
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The scientist built a complex contraption that can analyze air quality in real time.
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In the workshop, we encountered a complex contraption that had gears and levers that nobody could figure out.
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During the demonstration, the presenter showed off a complex contraption that seemed to have no clear function.
Synonyms
54
7.7
A strange machine or tool that looks complicated and hard to use
45
6.1
A set of machines or tools made to do a particular job
Antonyms
How Complex
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'complex' (consisting of many intricate parts) modifies 'contraption' (a device or machine), so the phrase simply denotes a complicated device. This adjective+noun combination follows normal English composition and is cross-linguistically transparent, so a B1 learner who knows both words can infer the meaning.
Etymology
Complex contraption may come from the picture of a strange machine full of gears, levers, and tubes, where complex means many connected parts and contraption means a odd gadget. So, the phrase came to mean 'a complicated device' that is hard to understand.