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’. | |
Re 5D Chambers gives both STAG and NOSE as slang terms for ‘informer’
Thanks, Bob.
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.