I had a slow start but managed to complete the puzzle in reasonable time. Last to fall was top right corner. Clue 17 ac is excellent but some clues (e.g., 4 ac) are not exciting by way of wordplay.
1 ASPECT – as, pect (“pecked”)
4 CALLIOPE – ca(l,lio)<pe
9 TREBLE – two def.
10 FRAGRANT – fra(gran)t. ‘frat’ is short for ‘fraternity’.
11 TONGUE – ton,g(-l)ue
12 OINTMENT – (oint)*, men, t
13 AFT – a, FT
14 DISCUS – discu(-s)
17 SEMINAR – (remains)*
21 WHINGE – w, hinge
25 PEG – two def.
26 NARRATOR – nar,rat,o,r < (ignoring typo in the online version)
27 SPRUCE – two def.
28 LARGESSE -larg(ess)e
29 BODICE – bod, ice – I know ‘bod’ means ‘man’ (from PGW, perhaps) but I don’t see the rest of wordplay.
30 RETIRING – solved from def. (“shy”) – I am unable to explain the wordplay
31 CYGNET – “signet”
Down
1 APTITUDE – putting in P instead of T in ‘attitude’; “One time” because there are so many t’s in the original word.
2 PLEONASM – (no sample)*
3 CALCULUS – ‘summer’ in the sense of one who sums or one who does sums
5 ADROIT – a,dr,o,it – how ‘of’ gives ‘o’, I don’t know.
6 LEGATO – legato(-r)
7 ONAGER – “on (-l)ager”
8 ESTATE – two def. – Can “estate”, by itself, mean ‘estate car’? Or is “Estate’ a brand name?
12 OFFICER – anag. of ‘I force, f’ – ‘at sea’ is anag. ind. – For def., read the clue.
15 SEE – hidden in ‘verSE Epistle’
16 SAW -do- in ‘iS A Winner’ – The two combined clues with the ellipses somehow don’t read smoothly, IMHO.
18 RHAPSODY – (Posh yard)*
19 INFUSION – in, fusion
20 TENEMENT – tene(men)t
22 ANTLER – (learnt)*
23 DRY-ROT – Dr., yroT<
24 CAREER – ‘rush’ or ‘rush around’ is the def. – I do see ‘car’ (vehicle) but the rest of the wordplay eludes me at the moment of writing.
25 POISON – two def. – A grim clue. A cure drink for me, please!
29 might be bo for man (see yesterday’s Hypnos blog) plus dice.
30 is an expression to mean going to bed.
29a could be BOD (chap) ICE (cut or ignore) but from the wordplay it is more likely to be BO (chap in some US states) DICE (cut or chop)
5d ‘o’ is given as a shortened form for ‘of’ in Chambers
24d still working on this one
Re O for ‘of’ –
Oh OK, as in will-o’-the-wisp or Tom O’Shanter.
24d I have a suspicion that there may be a misprint in this clue. If ‘not smart’ should be ‘not start’ then the wordplay would be CAR [v]EER. Veer as a noun is defined as ‘a shifting round’ which could equate with a ‘turning’.
24d On further consideration, there is no misprint. The wordplay is CAR [st]EER[ing] with turning=steering and smart=sting.
Geoff,
Thank you very much!
Rishi – no problem.
I have just noticed your query in 8d. One of the definitions for ‘estate’ in Chambers is ‘an estate car’.
Also, I think the ellipses in 15d/16d relate to the answers rather than the clues.