slots

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of slot.

   All the parking slots near the entrance were taken by noon.

   The new schedule opened up several slots for afternoon classes.

   Note

   One use of the plural is more than a count of openings, schedule places or deer tracks. Here "the slots" means slot machines, an informal clipping that usually appears in the plural, as in playing the slots. The same spelling also serves the present-tense verb, so context separates a row of openings from someone slotting things in.

   They spent the whole weekend in Reno playing the slots.

   She won fifty dollars on the slots before dinner.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of slot.

   The coach slots the new player into midfield for tonight's match.

   The software automatically slots each task into an available time block.

   Note

   The verb form works with or without an object. A coach slots a player into midfield, and a scheduler slots a meeting in. A climber who falls into a crevasse also slots, with no object at all. Watch one register: in British and Rhodesian slang, slot means "to kill." In that sense, "he slots the guard" has nothing to do with timetables.

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