Slot noun C (LONG HOLE) C1. A long, narrow hole, especially one for putting coins into or for fitting a separate piece into: I put my money in the slot and pressed the button but nothing came out. Time slot definition: 1. A time when something can happen or is planned to happen, especially when it is one of several.
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and our community of experts to gain a global audience for your work!Sloth, (suborder Phyllophaga), tree-dwelling mammal noted for its slowness of movement. All five living species are limited to the lowland tropical forests of South and Central America, where they can be found high in the forest canopy sunning, resting, or feeding on leaves. Although two-toed sloths (family Megalonychidae) are capable of climbing and positioning themselves vertically, they spend almost all of their time hanging horizontally, using their large hooklike extremities to move along branches and vines. Three-toed sloths (family Bradypodidae) move in the same way but often sit in the forks of trees rather than hanging from branches.
What kind of animal is a sloth?
Sloths are mammals. They are part of the order Pilosa, which is also home to anteaters. Together with armadillos, sloths and anteaters form the magnorder Xenarthra.
How many types of sloths are there?
A total of five species of sloths exist: the pygmy three-toed sloth, the maned sloth, the pale-throated three-toed sloth, the brown-throated three-toed sloth, and Linnaeus's two-toed sloth. All sloths are either two-toed or three-toed.
Where do sloths live?
Sloths live in the lowland tropical areas of South and Central America. They spend most of their life in the forest canopy. Two-toed sloths tend to hang horizontally from branches, while three-toed sloths often sit in the forks of trees.
What do sloths eat?
Sloths are omnivores. Because they spend most of their time in trees, they like to munch on leaves, twigs, flowers, and other foliage, though some species may eat insects and other small animals.
Why are sloths so slow?
Sloths are slow because of their diet and metabolic rate. They eat a low-calorie diet consisting exclusively of plants, and they metabolize at a rate that is only 40–45 percent of what is expected for mammals of their weight. Sloths must move slowly to conserve energy.
Sloths have long legs, stumpy tails, and rounded heads with inconspicuous ears. Although they possess colour vision, sloths' eyesight and hearing are not very acute; orientation is mainly by touch. The limbs are adapted for suspending the body rather than supporting it. As a result, sloths are completely helpless on the ground unless there is something to grasp. Even then, they are able only to drag themselves along with their claws. They are surprisingly good swimmers. Generally nocturnal, sloths are solitary and are aggressive toward others of the same sex.
Sloths have large multichambered stomachs and an ability to tolerate strong chemicals from the foliage they eat. The leafy food is digested slowly; a fermenting meal may take up to a week to process. The stomach is constantly filled, its contents making up about 30 percent of the sloth's weight. Sloths descend to the ground at approximately six-day intervals to urinate and defecate (see Sidebar: A moving habitat). Physiologically, sloths are heterothermic—that is, they have imperfect control over their body temperature. Normally ranging between 25 and 35 °C (77 and 95 °F), body temperature may drop to as low as 20 °C (68 °F). At this temperature the animals become torpid. Although heterothermicity makes sloths very sensitive to temperature change, they have thick skin and are able to withstand severe injuries.
All sloths were formerly classified in the same family (Bradypodidae), but two-toed sloths have been found to be so different from three-toed sloths that they are now classified in a separate family (Megalonychidae).
Three-toed sloths
Our editors will review what you've submitted and determine whether to revise the article.
Join Britannica's Publishing Partner ProgramMail Slot Meaning
and our community of experts to gain a global audience for your work!Sloth, (suborder Phyllophaga), tree-dwelling mammal noted for its slowness of movement. All five living species are limited to the lowland tropical forests of South and Central America, where they can be found high in the forest canopy sunning, resting, or feeding on leaves. Although two-toed sloths (family Megalonychidae) are capable of climbing and positioning themselves vertically, they spend almost all of their time hanging horizontally, using their large hooklike extremities to move along branches and vines. Three-toed sloths (family Bradypodidae) move in the same way but often sit in the forks of trees rather than hanging from branches.
What kind of animal is a sloth?
Sloths are mammals. They are part of the order Pilosa, which is also home to anteaters. Together with armadillos, sloths and anteaters form the magnorder Xenarthra.
How many types of sloths are there?
A total of five species of sloths exist: the pygmy three-toed sloth, the maned sloth, the pale-throated three-toed sloth, the brown-throated three-toed sloth, and Linnaeus's two-toed sloth. All sloths are either two-toed or three-toed.
Where do sloths live?
Sloths live in the lowland tropical areas of South and Central America. They spend most of their life in the forest canopy. Two-toed sloths tend to hang horizontally from branches, while three-toed sloths often sit in the forks of trees.
What do sloths eat?
Sloths are omnivores. Because they spend most of their time in trees, they like to munch on leaves, twigs, flowers, and other foliage, though some species may eat insects and other small animals.
Why are sloths so slow?
Sloths are slow because of their diet and metabolic rate. They eat a low-calorie diet consisting exclusively of plants, and they metabolize at a rate that is only 40–45 percent of what is expected for mammals of their weight. Sloths must move slowly to conserve energy.
Sloths have long legs, stumpy tails, and rounded heads with inconspicuous ears. Although they possess colour vision, sloths' eyesight and hearing are not very acute; orientation is mainly by touch. The limbs are adapted for suspending the body rather than supporting it. As a result, sloths are completely helpless on the ground unless there is something to grasp. Even then, they are able only to drag themselves along with their claws. They are surprisingly good swimmers. Generally nocturnal, sloths are solitary and are aggressive toward others of the same sex.
Sloths have large multichambered stomachs and an ability to tolerate strong chemicals from the foliage they eat. The leafy food is digested slowly; a fermenting meal may take up to a week to process. The stomach is constantly filled, its contents making up about 30 percent of the sloth's weight. Sloths descend to the ground at approximately six-day intervals to urinate and defecate (see Sidebar: A moving habitat). Physiologically, sloths are heterothermic—that is, they have imperfect control over their body temperature. Normally ranging between 25 and 35 °C (77 and 95 °F), body temperature may drop to as low as 20 °C (68 °F). At this temperature the animals become torpid. Although heterothermicity makes sloths very sensitive to temperature change, they have thick skin and are able to withstand severe injuries.
All sloths were formerly classified in the same family (Bradypodidae), but two-toed sloths have been found to be so different from three-toed sloths that they are now classified in a separate family (Megalonychidae).
Three-toed sloths
The three-toed sloth (family Bradypodidae) is also called the ai in Latin America because of the high-pitched cry it produces when agitated. All four species belong to the same genus, Bradypus, and the coloration of their short facial hair bestows them with a perpetually smiling expression. The brown-throated three-toed sloth (B. variegatus) occurs in Central and South America from Honduras to northern Argentina; the pale-throated three-toed sloth (B. tridactylus) is found in northern South America; the maned sloth (B. torquatus) is restricted to the small Atlantic forest of southeastern Brazil; and the pygmy three-toed sloth (B. pygmaeus) inhabits the Isla Escudo de Veraguas, a small Caribbean island off the northwestern coast of Panama.
Although most mammals have seven neck vertebrae, three-toed sloths have eight or nine, which permits them to turn their heads through a 270° arc. The teeth are simple pegs, and the upper front pair are smaller than the others; incisor and true canine teeth are lacking. Adults weigh only about 4 kg (8.8 pounds), and the young weigh less than 1 kg (2.2 pounds), possibly as little as 150–250 grams (about 5–9 ounces) at birth. (The birth weight of B. torquatus, for example, is only 300 grams [about 11 ounces].) The head and body length of three-toed sloths averages 58 cm (23 inches), and the tail is short, round, and movable. The forelimbs are 50 percent longer than the hind limbs; all four feet have three long, curved sharp claws. Sloths' coloration makes them difficult to spot, even though they are very common in some areas. The outer layer of shaggy long hair is pale brown to gray and covers a short, dense coat of black-and-white underfur. The outer hairs have many cracks, perhaps caused by the algae living there. The algae give the animals a greenish tinge, especially during the rainy season. Sexes look alike in the maned sloth, but in the other species males have a large patch (speculum) in the middle of the back that lacks overhair, thus revealing the black dorsal stripe and bordering white underfur, which is sometimes stained yellow to orange. The maned sloth gets its name from the long black hair on the back of its head and neck.
Three-toed sloths, although mainly nocturnal, may be active day or night but spend only about 10 percent of their time moving at all. They sleep either perched in the fork of a tree or hanging from a branch, with all four feet bunched together and the head tucked in on the chest. In this posture the sloth resembles a clump of dead leaves, so inconspicuous that it was once thought these animals ate only the leaves of cecropia trees because in other trees it went undetected. Research has since shown that they eat the foliage of a wide variety of other trees and vines. Locating food by touch and smell, the sloth feeds by hooking a branch with its claws and pulling it to its mouth. Sloths' slow movements and mainly nocturnal habits generally do not attract the attention of predators such as jaguars and harpy eagles. Normally, three-toed sloths are silent and docile, but if disturbed they can strike out furiously with the sharp foreclaws.
Reproduction is seasonal in the brown- and pale-throated species; the maned sloth may breed throughout the year. Reproduction in pygmy three-toed sloths, however, has not yet been observed. A single young is born after less than six months' gestation. Newborn sloths cling to the mother's abdomen and remain with the mother until at least five months of age. Three-toed sloths are so difficult to maintain in captivity that little is known about their breeding behaviour and other aspects of their life history.
Open Slots Meaning
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noun
Free Slot Games
1British A vending machine selling small items.
‘The slot machine sells sex toys, erotic lingerie, massage oil and condoms.'- ‘I remember on a rare trip to the seaside (the beach was out of bounds, full of barbed wire and gun emplacements) gazing at a long-empty slot machine that had once held chocolate bars and now appeared as a rusting icon from outer space.'
- ‘The reason I'm thinking about this, whilst I sit in the pub, drinking my pint - sorry, I'm in a pub - is because I can see a girl standing next to the slot machine, dressed in pink.'
- ‘The only other two in operation were DIY, where the hapless customer is expected to swipe groceries past an electronic eye and then fiddle about feeding credit cards or cash into a slot machine to pay for them.'
- ‘The ordinary idea of a slot machine logically involves the idea of a device in which some mechanism or other is set in operation by the coin, which in some way delivers the appropriate goods.'
- ‘If the government's central concern was the reduction in teenage pregnancies, the sensible thing would be to make the morning-after pill available cheaply - perhaps via slot machines in easily accessible places.'
- ‘A motorway service station may seem an odd place to remember 12 murder victims, but yesterday the bugler's Last Post called out amid the slot machines and coffee bars with haunting beauty.'
- ‘I suppose we ought to shut down every library, then find a way of building slot machines into books so that you have to keep putting 10p pieces in every few minutes in order to keep the pages turning.'
- ‘But let them run around cobbled streets, put old pennies in Victorian slot machines and try on historic costumes, and you'll find a very different reaction.'
- ‘And I finally found out during a visit to Old Penny Memories, a working collection of antique slot machines in Bridlington.'
- ‘The Bishop of Durham, the Rt Rev Tom Wright, says: ‘Prayer is not a penny in the slot machine, you can't just put in a coin and get out a chocolate bar at the bottom.'
- ‘Will you admit that you've been treating me like some kind of slot machine?'
- 1.1North American A fruit machine.‘Pachinko is a combination of slot machine and pinball game; players can control only the speed at which small stainless-steel balls are fed into the devices.'
- ‘It's a very special relationship and I've seen it on both video game players and on slot machine players and the industry will say that gambling problems are purely from within the individual.'
- ‘As time progressed, computerised versions and all sorts of clever entertainments have been merged into the basic game so that a Pachinko machine is often more like a Fruit Machine or slot machine than a ball game.'
- ‘Delaware Park plans to incorporate a new player tracking component in its racing and slot machine gaming systems.'
- ‘I fail to see how risking your hard-earned money on the outcome of a sporting event, the random machinations of a slot machine, or the numerical suicide of a lottery makes life more interesting.'
- ‘At the conclusion of each level the player is presented with the chance to play a slot machine game for extra men.'
- ‘As a result, shares of the slot machine and video game manufacturer edged up from $33.48 to $34.63.'
- ‘I put some money in a slot machine, and I won my first try.'
- ‘They would, he warned, use bingo as a ‘loss-leader' and encourage players to try their hand at more addictive slot machine games.'
- ‘This is not some sort of con game or high tech slot machine.'
- ‘In my opinion, nobody has ever had a gun held to his head and been forced to go into a casino and put money into a slot machine.'
- ‘You get what you pay for, Petal, and in the bar scene it is very much a case of putting the money in the slot machine and waiting to see if you win a prize.'
- ‘Players know that it determines the symbols that land on the pay line on a slot machine and the cards they're dealt on a video poker machine.'
- ‘As far as the slot machine goes, it really is an easily understood game, simple without being boring, with well laid out pay tables and easy to understand bonuses.'
- ‘Since the modern slot machine is programmed to select number series at random, no amount of finessing of the handle can change what has been decided.'
- ‘The basic premise of a slot machine is randomness to the extreme.'
- ‘I took a look at products from all the major slot machine manufacturers, and will give my impressions on new games over the next several weeks.'
- ‘I used to put minutes, quarter-hours, half-hours into this game, like ever larger sums into a slot machine.'
- ‘Collier is not alone in his fondness for the slot machine, an electronic poker game known locally as a ‘pokie'.'
- ‘This is my retirement money and if I want to put it in a slot machine, it's nobody's business but my own.'
Dip A Slot Meaning
