contraption

noun con·trap·tion \ kən-ˈtrap-shən \

|Updated on: 12 Jun 2018

Examples: contraption in a Sentence

Editor's Note: What Exactly is a contraption?

Definition of contraption

: device, gadget

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See contraption defined for kids

contraption was our Word of the Day on 09/18/2013. Hear the podcast!

Examples of contraption in a Sentence

The people wondered how the contraption worked.
built a contraption for automatically buttering toast

Recent Examples of contraption from the Web

Since April 22, a ten-foot-tall, 4.2-ton mechanical contraption has been walking among guests in the Valley of Mo’ara.

— arthur levine, USA TODAY, "Disney World kicks off an "Incredible Summer"," 25 May 2018
That sounds like a blow to the concept of the EmDrive, but Woodward is not ready to close the case on the contraption just yet.

— National Geographic, "NASA's 'Impossible' Space Engine Tested—Here Are the Results," 22 May 2018
But with the high-tech scanning contraption, these researchers have brought new life to old stains.

— tom avril, Philly.com, "Scans reveal secrets of medieval 'Harry Potter' book and medical texts at Penn," 14 May 2018
On Saturday, more than 30 flying contraptions will gather at the Cumberland River in Nashville's Riverfront Park.

— kirby adams, The Courier-Journal, "Flugtag takes flight this weekend a few hours south of Louisville," 22 Sep. 2017
Eastman built a contraption of mechanical sleigh bells that beat out a jangling pulse throughout the 70 minutes.

— mark swed, latimes.com, "The ecstasy of Julius Eastman's ‘Femenine,’ and how angst and anger turn to beauty and grace," 23 May 2018
In an attempt to remedy this problem, someone had come up with the idea of stacking six miniLabs one on top of the other and having them share one cytometer to reduce the size and cost of the resulting contraption.

— john carreyrou, WIRED, "A New Look Inside Theranos’ Dysfunctional Corporate Culture," 21 May 2018
But he’s been given a robotic gold-finding contraption that wasn’t in any of his textbooks, a machine created by a man everyone here calls the Doctor.

— genesee keevil, Popular Mechanics, "The Rush: What the World's Greatest Gold Prospector Knows," 17 May 2018
For those willing to pay more than the price of admission, an internal elevator would transport them from the observatory to the thrill ride, a mechanical-lift contraption called the Sky Summit.

— blair kamin, chicagotribune.com, "Aon Center makeover treats big banal skyscraper with respect. But about that thrill ride ...," 14 May 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'contraption.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

What Exactly is a contraption?

English has a number of words that can be used as general terms for mechanical or electronic devices, including gadget, gizmo, widget, and contraption. In addition to their meaning, these four words also have a couple of other things in common. First, they are all relative newcomers to the language. The oldest, contraption, entered the language around 1825. Second, the origins of all four are a bit of a mystery (well, widget is believed to be an alteration of gadget, but the origins of gadget are unknown-it didn't appear in print until 1886, but is believed to have been used among sailors perhaps as far back as the mid-1800s). Contraption, may be a blend of contrivance (which can be used as another synonym of gadget), trap, and invention.