Another helping of interesting words and carefully constructed clues. Thank you Azed.
I will be away on a short cycling tour over the weekend. If you have any corrections/questions then leave a comment and I will get back to you when I get an opportunity.
| ACROSS | ||
| 5 | AMPHIPOD | Sandhopper? Damp waves around I hop at large (8) |
| anagram (waves) of DAMP contains an anagram (at large) of I HOP – definition is &lit | ||
| 12 | NIRLIE | Scotsman’s tight-fisted, in withdrawing both hands that is (6) |
| IN reversed (withdrawing) R and L (both hands) then IE (that is) | ||
| 13 | AGNISE | The old own up to wrongdoing recalled in later years (6) |
| SIN (wrongdoing) reversed (recalled) inside AGE (later years) – the old indicates archaic | ||
| 14 | CLAUSTRA | Brain layers, crustal possibly, enveloping third of cranium (8) |
| anagram (possibly) of CRUSTAL contains (enveloping) crAnium (third letter of) | ||
| 15 | HAVEN | Number trailing behind accept asylum (5) |
| N (number) following HAVE (accept) | ||
| 16 | MELIC | Grass hidden by some lichen (5) |
| found inside soME LIChen | ||
| 17 | PROPS | One filling backstage role, providing stays or tiepins (5) |
| triple definition – or quadruple if you count a possible &lit too | ||
| 19 | NACRITE | Clay mineral, certain to be powdered (7) |
| anagram (to be powdered) of CERTAIN | ||
| 20 | SINGLES BAR | Succeeded beside fireplace with loosening bras in pick-up joint! (10, 2 words) |
| S (succeeded) then INGLE (fireplace) with anagram (loosening) of BRAS | ||
| 22 | NYMPHOLEPT | Speed in net ploy misplaced? I’m yearning for the unattainable (10) |
| MPH (speed) inside anagram (misplaced) of NET PLOY | ||
| 26 | POLENTA | Staff cheers about new dish in trattoria? (7) |
| POLE (staff) TA (cheers) contains (about) N (new) | ||
| 27 | LARES | Latin deity, or several (5) |
| L (latin) ARES (deity) – household gods, several deities | ||
| 28 | ALL-TO | Spurious word member of choir has left in (5) |
| ALTO (member of choir) contains L (left) | ||
| 30 | STIPE | Fern stalk, one gobbled by confounded pest (5) |
| I (one) onside (gobbled by) anagram (confounded) of PEST | ||
| 32 | COMPILER | Recoil shocked about e.g. Johnson backsliding – or his namesake perhaps? (8) |
| anagram (shocked) of RECOIL (contains) PM (Boris Johnson, for example) reversed (backsliding) – Tom Johnson the crossword compiler I assume or more likely Samuel Johnson the dictionary compiler | ||
| 33 | ATHENS | Does it suggest a coin from ancient times, and where one may be found? (6) |
| 34 | ARABLE | Young apache if having quit existence in form of farming (6) |
| ARAB (a young apache, offensive term for a street urchin) then LifE missing IF | ||
| 35 | SEREVENT | Medication for asthma happening after short sequence (8) |
| EVENT (happening) follows SER (series, sequence, abbreviated) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | INCHPIN | Cervine organ in part of face, soft inside (7) |
| IN CHIN (part of face) contains (with…inside) P (piano, soft) | ||
| 2 | ZILA | Indian district (found in Brazil also) (4) |
| found inside braZIL Also | ||
| 3 | BRAVOS | Hitmen, brothers engaging French lawyer (6) |
| BROS (brothers) contains AV (Av. avocat, French lawyer) | ||
| 4 | BLUE PIPE-TREE | See wretched beetle rip up eastern lilac (12, 2 words) |
| anagram (wretched) of BEETLE RIP UP and E (eastern) | ||
| 6 | METING | What’s posh about money? It’s given out for distributing (6) |
| 7 | PARIAL | Leading poet pens song for trio (6) |
| PL (poet Laureate, leading poet) contains (pens) ARIA (song) | ||
| 8 | INTERSPATIAL | Like a break? Art past, relaxed with lie-in (12) |
| anagram (relaxed) of ART PAST with LIE-IN | ||
| 9 | PILL | A pain, or what may deal with one (4) |
| double definition – tiresome person and medicine | ||
| 10 | OSCITATE | To yawn (8) |
| competition clue | ||
| 11 | DE-ICE | Around start of evening, cubes to take from freezer? (5) |
| Evening (first letter, start of) inside (around…is…) DICE (cubes) | ||
| 18 | RHYOLITE | Glassy stuff, unusually holy, used in religious ceremony (8) |
| anagram (unusually) of HOLY inside (used in) RITE (religious ceremony) | ||
| 21 | ROSE-RED | Dried out in bar, like Rabbie’s love? (7) |
| SERE (dried out) inside ROD (bar) – Oh my Luve is like a red, red rose – Robert Burns | ||
| 23 | OTIOSE | Nothing to elicit, I shut up, being indolent (6) |
| O (nothing) with TOSE (to elicit) containing (with…shut up) I | ||
| 24 | LAWMAN | Mum’s dressed in fine linen, one that earned a star (6) |
| MA (mum) inside LAWN (fine linen) | ||
| 25 | TRILBY | I put on pound in a go? That should form a lid (6) |
| I with LB (pound) inside TRY (a go) | ||
| 26 | PALAS | Trees, millions replaced by area for Indian one (5) |
| PALmS (trees) with M (millions) replaced by A (area) – an Indian tree | ||
| 29 | LEHR | Oven Lalique emptied, right, hot inside (4) |
| LaliquE (no middle letters, emptied) R (right) contains (with…inside) H (hot) | ||
| 31 | PELA | Insect’s secretion left inside veg plant (4) |
| L (left) inside PEA (plant) | ||
Thanks PeeDee.
I took the COMPILER to be Samuel Johnson of dictionary fame. Agree about ATHENS.
In METING, ‘meg’ and ‘posh’ are both words for a ha’penny I think – still not sure about the exact parsing.
Thanks Azec as ever.
Doh ‘Azed”
This was the first Azed that I have ever completed. I am usually frustrated and ultimately just turned off by the unremitting obscurity of the majority of the answers. This one, for whatever reason, seemed relatively straightforward. I could not find that definition of PARIAL (my references saying “relating to a pair”), but I do not have a Chambers, and that seemed to be obviously how it was clued.
Congrats Cineraria 🙂 Yes, Chambers gives ‘pairial’,’pairal’ and ‘prial’ as variants of ‘pair royal’
I thought A then S referred to AS, a Roman copper coin. Many remember shillings surely—are we ancient?
COMPILER and METING as Gonzo.
Stefan
Ah, yes ‘as’ well spotted.
Oh, cribbage, I see. Not my game.
I had the coin for A THEN S too, but did wonder why a Roman coin would be found in a Greek city?
Thanks to PeeDee and Azed
6d Def is “it”
What’s “meg” about “tin”? “It” is a word that, “given” “out”, means “distributing”
Maybe I’m thick, but I don’t really understand Chambers entry for ‘All to’. The examples given are somewhat weird – how would you use the obscure words in that context, if any?
Thanks Dansar – ‘meting out’ means ‘distributing’. I had worked that out last Sunday – perhaps I should start making motes!
Nick, I think the meaning is that an ‘all-to’ is a class of mistaken words derived from mis-separating the ‘to’ from a word. Like a ‘mondegreen’ is a class of mistaken words derived from mishearing.
That’s a ‘Lady Mondegreen’, i.e. a fallen Knight that died in battle and when brought home they ‘laid him on the green’.
A mis-heard lyric etc. But what does ALLTO come into it?
I found this explanation of the error:
All to, or All-to. In such phrases as “all to rent,” “all
to break,” “all-to frozen,” etc., which are of frequent
occurrence in our old authors, the all and the to have
commonly been regarded as forming a compound adverb,
equivalent in meaning to entirely, completely, altogether.
But the sense of entireness lies wholly in the word all
(as it does in “all forlorn,” and similar expressions),
and the to properly belongs to the following word, being a
kind of intensive prefix (orig. meaning asunder and
answering to the LG. ter-, HG. zer-). It is frequently to
be met with in old books, used without the all. Thus
Wyclif says, “The vail of the temple was to rent:” and of
Judas, “He was hanged and to-burst the middle:” i. e.,
burst in two, or asunder.
By definition, none of us here are thick (welcome, Cineraria), we just have the lapses some of us are entitled to.
I thought 6 Dn was straightforward and it reads naturally: It [i.e. the answer] ‘s given [i.e. receives] out [i.e. the word “out”] for distributing [i.e. the answer is a word which, when accompanied by “out”, means “distributing”]. So ‘The answer accompanied by “out” indicates “distributing”.’
And do we not all say “meting out” when we talk about dishing things out, distributing?
Is that what you meant by “It” being the definition, Dansar?
Stefan
The explanation of 23dn is incorrect because it gives two Is. According to Chambers, toze or tose means to elicit and so O (nothing) TOSE (to elicit) and I (shut up, i.e. enclosed in tose) gives OTIOSE.
Meting out actually means measuring out. The only thing I can actually recall being meted out is punishment, presumably measured so that the punishment fits the crime (as WS Gilbert famously reminded us).
Cineraria: There is a free to use online Chambers
https://chambers.co.uk/book/the-chambers-dictionary/
Not so useful for browsing but good for checking obscure words.
Thanks Tom – I think 23dn just had a typo, the I and O are neighbouring keys on the keyboard