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The penny dropped

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Generated photo of a hand dropping a penny
The penny dropped is an idiom that means someone finally understood something, after some confusion or delay. A similar idiom is a light bulb moment or to put two and two together.
It originates in older slot machines, where there was a delay between inserting a coin, and the mechanism starting to work.

She stared at the instructions for a full 10 minutes before the penny dropped.