slot machine

noun

1. a gambling machine operated by inserting coins into a slot and pulling a handle that activates a set of spinning symbols on wheels, the final alignment of which determines the payoff that is released into a receptacle at the bottom.
2. any machine operated by inserting coins into a slot, as a vending machine.

slot machine

noun

1. a machine, esp one for selling small articles or for gambling, activated by placing a coin or metal disc in a slot

Word History and Origins

Origin of slot machine¹

First recorded in 1890–95

Example Sentences

As Lamping tested her luck at the restaurant’s video slot machines, Sutton snacked on chips and salsa while waiting for a platter of chicken enchiladas.

From ProPublica

The terminals were filled with slot machines, giving tourists one last taste of Las Vegas.

From Washington Post

It helped that the flashing lights of the slot machines in the casino hotel we stayed in upon our arrival reminded me just enough of Times Square.

From Outside Online

First, a display flashes and rolls, like on a slot machine, and then it settles on your weight.

From Washington Post

Budget problems reached the point that four states even legalized slot machines, which one Kansas judge had only a few years earlier dubbed “the most vicious form of gambling.”

From Washington Post

Jacob: The last time I was in Atlantic City, I sat at the Sex and the City slot machine and I ordered cosmopolitans.

From The Daily Beast

Long-term, the markets remain a casino—or, still worse, a slot machine, where money disappears into an electronic box.

From The Daily Beast

It was metallic—about the size of a penny slot-machine bar of chocolate, if you remember back that far.

From Project Gutenberg

And now she had dropped the precious coins down the hungry mouth of a slot machine.

From Project Gutenberg

This was a device which has become familiar in recent times as the penny-in-the-slot machine.

From Project Gutenberg

He sauntered over and dropped a quarter into the slot-machine by the door, but the thing was frozen up and refused to work.

From Project Gutenberg

I got a wire hairpin and went over to the slot-machine, but when I had finally dug out the money I could hardly see it for tears.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• vending machine