Azed 2008: Sunday 21 November
Posted by jetdoc on November 28th, 2010
A mostly straightforward Azed, with a few that held me up for a while and needed to be checked in Chambers (like the definition of ‘office’ in 19a).
I didn’t get the wordplay at 5d until helped out with a relatively obscure alternative meaning.
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GUT-WRENCHING | GUT = ‘tug’ reversed; WENCHING; R = right | |
| 9 | ORRA | OR = ordinary ranks (the men, as opposed to the officers); RA = Royal Artillery. ‘Odd; not matched; left over; occasional, casual; supernumerary; worthless’ | |
| 10 | UDOS | With K (a thousand) this would make ‘kudos’. Udo is a Japanese species of Aralia with edible shoots. | |
| 12 | E-BAY | E = Eastern; BY = Belarus (IVR); A | |
| 13 | STANDARD LAMP | *(palms); TAN = brown; DARD = a person belonging to any of the peoples who speak Dardic languages | |
| 14 | SONDE | Hidden in ‘person deployed’. Any device for obtaining information about atmospheric and weather conditions at high altitudes. | |
| 15 | MICAS | MIC = bug (microphone); AS = when. Glimmer is mica. | |
| 17 | INSERTED | *(trend is e) | |
| 19 | LEUCITE | Sounds like “loo site”, ‘office’ being a euphemism for lavatory. Leucite | |
| 21 | TRIPLEX | TRIP = feel effects of (hallucinogenic) drug; LEX = law. Triplex® glass is a combination of glass and mica in three layers. | |
| 27 | DECEMBER | DEC[k]; EMBER | |
| 29 | UNETH | U = university; *(then). Alternative spelling of uneath, old word meaning ‘hardly, scarcely’ | |
| 30 | PALER | ‘Reap’ reversed; L = left. ‘Pale’ can mean ‘ not ruddy or fresh’. | |
| 31 | TARAMASALATA | TART A; filled with A MASALA. Taramasalata | |
| 32 | COSS | ‘Cossets’ minus ‘set’. A measure of distance in India, averaging about 1¾ miles. | |
| 33 | OP-ED | Double definition — a newspaper article printed opposite the editorial column; (without hyphen) past tense of ‘ope’, a poetic form of ‘open’. | |
| 34 | TIAN | TIN = can; A = ace. A vegetable gratin baked in an earthenware dish | |
| 35 | HIGH-SEASONED | HIGH SEAS = ocean; *(done), with ‘bouilli’ as the anagram indicator. | |
| Down | |||
| 1 | GOSSIB | ‘Bis sog’ (twice soak), reversed. Spenserian form of ‘gossip’ in its archaic sense of ‘a familiar friend’ | |
| 2 | TRANSPIRE | *(terrapins) | |
| 3 | WANDER | WAN = colourless; DER[by] | |
| 4 | RUDERY | RU = Republic of Burundi (IVR); DRY = parched; E = earth | |
| 5 | NORSE | Thanks to Bob for help on this one. NOSE = informer, for which ‘stag’ is another term; R = ‘antler’s tip’. ‘Ancient Scandinavian’ is the definition. | |
| 6 | HELIAC | H = ‘hat’ without ‘at’; *(Alice). | |
| 7 | NAMASTE | NA = not applicable; MASTE[r]. (In India) a traditional form of greeting, a slight bow with the palms pressed together before the chest or face | |
| 8 | GYPSY | Hidden in ‘dodgy psychology’. | |
| 11 | DARTLE | *(dealt); R = king. To move, start or shoot out rapidly | |
| 16 | CHILBLAIN | *(Bill); in CHAIN. Chilblains | |
| 18 | PRONAOI | P = prince; ROI = foreign king; ON A = close to one. Plural of pronaos, the vestibule in front of a temple | |
| 20 | EXCUSE | EX = without; CUSE sounds like “Qs”, which one might mind along with one’s Ps (“peas”) | |
| 22 | POTASH | ‘sat’ reversed; in ‘hop’ reversed. Potash is the common name for various mined and manufactured salts that contain potassium in water-soluble form. | |
| 23 | SEPADS | AD = Bill (advertisement); SEPS = a skink of the genus Seps with a serpentlike body, the serpent-lizard; a very venomous snake mentioned by classical writers. To suppose; to warrant [a ghost word; from JM Barrie’s mishearing of I’se (= I sal) uphaud, I shall uphold] | |
| 24 | SMALTO | SO = like this; MALT = liquor. Coloured glass or enamel for mosaic work; a cube of it | |
| 25 | ERRAND | ER = Her Majesty; north of (above) RAND = a border, margin | |
| 26 | DUTCH | Double definition — wife (‘trouble and strife’ in Cockney rhyming slang); artificial courage induced by drinking alcohol | |
| 28 | ETAPE | Five successive characters in ‘helmet a pest’. | |
November 28th, 2010 at 11:07 am
Re 5D Chambers gives both STAG and NOSE as slang terms for ‘informer’
November 28th, 2010 at 11:10 am
Thanks, Bob.
November 28th, 2010 at 11:10 am
Very entertaining with not too many obscure words. NORSE did puzzled me but Bradford gives “Stag” under “nose” but I don’t know on what authority.