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contraption

[kuhn-trap-shuhn]

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noun Informal.

a mechanical contrivance; gadget; device.

Origin:
1815–25; perhaps contr(ivance) + (ad)aption, variant of adaptation

Related forms

con·trap·tious, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Contraption is always a great word to know.

So is quincunx. Does it mean:

a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.

an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle.

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Example Sentences

Gyroscopes and servos will monitor the pulse jets, and he'll use small rockets in the nose of his contraption for steering.

The contraption is fitted with a series of circular, diamond-infused pulverizers, which it lowers onto a nearby rock surface.

And if he runs out of bullets, he has a big knife strapped to the contraption with duct tape.

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Collins

World English Dictionary

contraption (kənˈtræpʃən)

—n
	informal, facetious, derogatory often, or a device or contrivance, esp one considered strange, unnecessarily intricate, or improvised

[C19: perhaps from con(trivance) + trap¹ + (inven)tion]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

contraption

1825, western England dialect, origin obscure, perhaps from con(trive) + trap, or deception.

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Matching Quote

"Our opposition will never understand the Democratic Party. Our Party is—to the unpracticed eyes of the old Republican Tories—a mysterious contraption that usually seems to be moving in a thousand directions. What they don't know is what hurts them. For all that movement in the Democratic Party is caused by the internal combustion of creative ferment, of ideas, of people vigorously committed to the proposition that change and social progress are not only to be desired; they are necessities of twentieth-century America."

-Hubert H. Humphrey

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contraption

con·trap·tion