overengineered

English

Verb

overengineered

1. simple past and past participle of overengineer

Adjective

overengineered (comparative more overengineered, superlative most overengineered)

1. Made more complicated than necessary, often intentionally; as, especially:
   1. Designed for greater strength or other greater capability than is reasonably warranted by the principal purpose of the object, in anticipation of heavier duty or longer duty cycles than the standard use cases would predict.
      • 2023 April 5, “£35,000 needed to save a Class 317 and create rebuilt '210' DMU”, in RAIL, number 980, page 8:

        They were ruled out as over-engineered and too expensive for mass production, and lost out to Class 141 and '142' railbuses, and then Class 150s.

See also

• built like a brick shithouse
• overbuilt
• Rube Goldberg
• Heath Robinson