"Heath Robinson" meaning in English

{
  "etymology_text": "In reference to the drawings by William Heath Robinson.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "Heath Robinsons",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "Heath Robinson (plural Heath Robinsons)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "British English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with language name categories using raw markup",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
          "parents": [
            "Terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1998, Samuel Lieu, Manichaeism in Central Asia and China, page 16",
          "text": "Among the many Heath Robinson contraptions he devised were the Light Vessels (the Sun and the Moon) which would ferry the rescued Light-Particles back to their land of origin along the Milky Way.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2014, Ivan M. Donaldson, The Truant from Medicine: A Memoir",
          "text": "And that is how we came to mow our lake weed, although we eventually found it easier to tie two ropes, one to each side of the inner tube, and to pull the Heath Robinson contraption back and forwards across the water with Chris and I standing on opposite banks, each holding one of the lines.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Anything ingenious (and often complex) but absurdly impractical or even useless."
      ],
      "id": "en-Heath_Robinson-en-noun--ifr8Oqy",
      "links": [
        [
          "ingenious",
          "ingenious"
        ],
        [
          "complex",
          "complex"
        ],
        [
          "impractical",
          "impractical"
        ],
        [
          "useless",
          "useless"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(chiefly UK, attributive) Anything ingenious (and often complex) but absurdly impractical or even useless."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "Heath Robinsonesque"
        },
        {
          "word": "Rube Goldberg machine"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "UK",
        "attributive"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "W. Heath Robinson"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "Heath Robinson"
}

{
  "etymology_text": "In reference to the drawings by William Heath Robinson.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "Heath Robinsons",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "Heath Robinson (plural Heath Robinsons)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "Heath Robinsonesque"
    },
    {
      "word": "Rube Goldberg machine"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "British English",
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
        "English eponyms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1998, Samuel Lieu, Manichaeism in Central Asia and China, page 16",
          "text": "Among the many Heath Robinson contraptions he devised were the Light Vessels (the Sun and the Moon) which would ferry the rescued Light-Particles back to their land of origin along the Milky Way.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2014, Ivan M. Donaldson, The Truant from Medicine: A Memoir",
          "text": "And that is how we came to mow our lake weed, although we eventually found it easier to tie two ropes, one to each side of the inner tube, and to pull the Heath Robinson contraption back and forwards across the water with Chris and I standing on opposite banks, each holding one of the lines.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Anything ingenious (and often complex) but absurdly impractical or even useless."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "ingenious",
          "ingenious"
        ],
        [
          "complex",
          "complex"
        ],
        [
          "impractical",
          "impractical"
        ],
        [
          "useless",
          "useless"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(chiefly UK, attributive) Anything ingenious (and often complex) but absurdly impractical or even useless."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "UK",
        "attributive"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "W. Heath Robinson"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "Heath Robinson"
}