Guardian 24,206 – Brendan/Ambiguity

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A clever themed crossword which shows the ambiguity of the English language.

Most of the across clues and some of the down clues lead to words which have two conflicting definitions. 

Time taken: about 7 mins.

ACROSS

1 BOLTED – first clue, first ambiguous word

4 PRO(O)FS

10 PHOTOGENIC – (got one chip)*

11 SCREEN

12 B-LESSING – Doris Lessing, Persian-born British writer who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature earlier this week.

13 TAXI-METER

15 AGED – hidden in “trAGEDian”

17 SENSITIVE – (<=IT IS) in (seven)*

21 CITATION

22 RAVELS

24 SANCTIONED

25 DRAW

27 CLEAVE

DOWN

1 BRESCIA – Br.+(case I)* – a city in Italy

2 LIT(eratu)RE

3 EX(PENS)E

6 OVERSIGHT

8 DOUBLE MEANING

14 INSTANCES – (incessant)*

16 BRIG-AND

18 STRUDEL – “removed from” “feaST RUDELy”

19 VIL(LAG)E

20 DIV(I’D)E

12 comments on “Guardian 24,206 – Brendan/Ambiguity”

  1. Terrific stuff, I thought. I love Brendan’s themed crosswords. In an ideal world, Brendan, Paul and Orlando would do two Guardian crosswords each per week.

    I assume it was just happy coincidence that Doris Lessing made an appearance just after being awarded the Nobel Prize – or did Brendan have some insider knowledge?

  3. 8dn: Double Meaning, defined by ambiguous, makes a good theme. But could someone explain “It could be folded once, or twice”??

  4. 8dn: Took me ages to understand the cryptic for this. You have to read the clue ‘It could be’ (ie it could mean), ‘folded once’ or ‘twice’ (both of which mean ‘double’). Very clever.

  10. Further thought on the clue for 8dn. Brendan could have left off ‘- it’s ambiguous’ and just given: ‘It could be folded once, or twice’. That clues a double meaning of the word ‘double’ and makes it a even trickier &lit.

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