There’s only a short preamble this time. There are, we are told, ten answers which are to be modified. The remark about the lengths of grid entries implies that these may involve the addition or removal or letters. But the pressing question is, as always, which letters?
In fact, there’s a bit of removing AND a bit of adding. Specifically, and this took me a great deal of time to work out, if I remember correctly, various singular that appear in the grid are to be replaced by their respective collective nouns. For me, it was MICROWAVES -> MIMURDERAVES which cleared up the mystery.
That said, I’m afraid some mystery remains, in that I have yet to parse (and, indeed, solve) 36ac. Thanks to mc_rapper67. I really should have got that!
Apologies to all for that lapse, and thanks to Kruger. I know I’ve kept this short and sweet, but in case there’s any doubt: this was most enjoyable.
Notation
(xxx) = definition
{xxx} = (anagram/homophone/container/etc.) indicator
XXX* = anagram
< = reversal
xxx = unused letter(s)
Idlers=redundant word
Please post a comment if the explanations are not clear.
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | STEALTHY | SSPRINGTHY | Furtive W (wife) [leaves] WEALTH (valuable possessions) [inside] STY (animal’s enclosure) (10) |
| 10 | ESPY | With E (the commonest of tElEscopEs), SePoYs [regularly] observe (4) | |
| 11 | SNYE | SE (Home counties) [receiving] [extremely] NoisY channel (4) | |
| 12 | AMI | Friend in AMISH (US sect) [abandoning] S (second) H (husband) (3) | |
| 13 | AGONIC | [After] AGON (a struggle), [starts to] Inscribe Configuration without making an angle (6) | |
| 14 | SEPTUM | Partition‘s SUM (height) [restricting] [vicious] PET* (6) | |
| 16 | AGAIN | Further GAIN (profit) A (accepted) [up front] (5) | |
| 18 | LEND AN EAR | Listen to LEARNEDMAN* [astonishingly] [giving away] M (money) (9, three words) | |
| 19 | NURR | Knot‘s <RUN (come undone) [put back] [at front of] Rigging (4) | |
| 20 | TAGALOG | TAG ALO |
|
| 23 | JUICED | Drunk J (judge) ICED (killed in New York) [outside] U (university) (6) | |
| 24 | ASHCAN |
ASH (Hard wood) CAN (is a possibility) for rubbish container (6) | |
| 26 | CUPCAKE | CU (Copper) PC (police constable) at WAKE (festival) – [not] W (with) attractive woman from the States (7) | |
| 29 | THUS | Frankincense is like this (4) | |
| 30 | DUCAT | DUCLOWDER | Gold coin in DU (Dutch) CAT (catalogue) (9) |
| 35 | DIOTA | < [Overturned] [contents of] ampullA TO IDentify vase (5) | |
| 36 | ORBISON | ORHERD | Former singer, ORB (once bereaved), IS ON (willing to participate) (6) |
| 37 | SEASON | Limited time SEE (to understand) [vocal] SON (native) (6) | |
| 38 | NEO | NERO (Tyrant) [not using] R (right) language (3) | |
| 39 | BUTT | Cask of thick leather (4) | |
| 40 | BRAE | Hillside in the Cairngorms BRAVE (looking fine?) [Not] V (very) (4) | |
| 41 | PRESERVERS | RESERVE (Ice) [seen on] Roads [principally] [in outskirts of] PariS – they could freeze (10) | |
| Down | |||
| 1 | CLARKE | CEXALTATIONE | He wrote an odyssey C (about) ARK (large vessel) [captured by] LE (the French) (12) |
| 2 | USAGE | Practice of < [returning] GAS (boastful talk) [in] [middle of] dUEl (5) | |
| 3 | SPELK | SPGANG | [Western fringes of] Scottish Plantation Exclude Loggers Keeping thin strip of wood in Fife (5) |
| 4 | PENNAL | A German student‘s PL (place) [providing accommodation for] < [return of] ANNE (Frank, possibly) (6) | |
| 5 | INCLE | [Heartlessly] ME |
|
| 6 | NYSSA | [After departure of odd characters], oNlY <ASS (idiot) [is climbing] tree (5) | |
| 7 | TOXIC | TSPANIC | Damaging [loss of] E (energy) in EXOTIC* [dancing] (7) |
| 8 | HATE | Dislike HASTE (undue speed) when S (sun) [disappears from view] (4) | |
| 9 | MICROWAVES | MIMURDERAVES | M (Motorway) servIces’ [fifth] Chef [originally] OVERSAW* [changing] ovens (12) |
| 11 | SIGN ON | Enlist <GI (US soldier) [back] [into] [ultimate of] forceS NON (not French) (6, two words) | |
| 15 | ECRU | ECU (Five francs) [secures] [last of] weaveR’s linen (4) | |
| 17 | TREK | SHREK (Ogre) [not] SH (quiet) [after] T (tense) journey (4) | |
| 21 | ASHE | Old tennis player is [mostly] ASHEN (very pale) (4) | |
| 22 | ACHERON | ACSIEGE | [Nearly] ANCHORE |
| 23 | JULIET | Code word usually associated with “R”? (6) | |
| 25 | ADAR | DA (American lawman) [visits] AR (Arabia) for some of February and March (4) | |
| 27 | SEA LANE | PODANE | Ship’s route [curiously] SEEN* [to take in] AL (Albania) and [entrance to] Adriatic (6, two words) |
| 28 | ADOORS | Beside the entrance [of] PrADO OR Suchlike (6) | |
| 31 | UNDUE | Inappropriate UN (article in Le Monde) [appears before] DUET [inconclusive] (action involving two people) (5) | |
| 32 | BEER | CASTR | Porter‘s pillowcase (5) |
| 33 | ETNAS | ETAS (Servants) [overrun] N (navy) vessels (5) | |
| 34 | THOR |
God THOROUGH (scrupulous in attending to detail?) [Not half!] (4) | |
I parsed 36A as:
ORB (obsolete, bereaved) + IS + ON (willing)
so OR+BISON –> OR+HERD.
(It helped having watched a documentary on this ‘former singer’ on BBC4 recently – and in fact it was repeated again tonight.)
Everyone seems to call these collective nouns except for (certain) reference books. Brewer calls thems nouns of assemblage and Fowler calls them proper terms. But I was defeated by the one for 7d as I could not find it in either of those books. Fowler does not mention them (though cattle is in there) and Brewer only gives yoke, drove, team or herd. I see it is in Chambers but I am not sure that span is acting as a collective noun here. I remember a teacher at school posing the question what was the collective noun for shoes. The answer turned out to be pair. Still, the preamble to this crossword does not say that they are all collective nouns.