fruit machine
Noun: A fruit machine is a coin-operated gambling device, typically found in pubs, arcades, or casinos. It features spinning reels (dials) marked with various symbols, most commonly images of different fruits like cherries, lemons, and plums. The player inserts money, pulls a lever or presses a button to set the reels in motion, and wins money if the reels stop to display a specific, pre-determined winning combination of symbols.
The term "fruit machine" is used to refer to the physical gambling device itself. It describes a game of chance where the outcome is determined randomly. - He spent all his change trying to win the jackpot on the fruit machine. - The pub had a fruit machine in the corner. - Playing the fruit machine is based purely on luck.
- "to feed the fruit machine": To repeatedly put coins into the machine.
- He just kept feeding the fruit machine all evening, hoping for a big win.
- The term is primarily used in British English. In American English, the common equivalent term is slot machine or one-armed bandit.
- Slot machine: (chiefly US English) A direct synonym for a fruit machine, though modern slot machines may use video screens instead of physical reels and have themes beyond fruit symbols.
- One-armed bandit: (Informal) A nickname for a fruit machine or slot machine, referring to the lever on the side ("one arm") and its tendency to take players' money ("bandit").
- Gaming machine
- Slot machine (US)
- One-armed bandit (informal)
- "The fruits of one's labor": This idiom is semantically related through the word "fruit" but has a completely different meaning, referring to the rewards or results of hard work. It is not directly related to the gambling machine.
- After years of study, she finally enjoyed the fruits of her labor when she graduated.
-
a coin-operated gambling machine that produces random combinations of symbols (usually pictures of different fruits) on rotating dials; certain combinations win money for the player
