Azed 2287

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The usual Azed. A whole lot of rare words (how does he know them?) all accurately clued and perfectly straightforward once one has the answer, although getting it in the first place is not always easy.

Definitions underlined.

Across
1 Antique black diamonds always found in half of boutique that’s disorganized (12, 3 words) — OBJET DE VERTU — (jet d ever) in (bout{ique})*
10 Spite of old to detest in female beast (6) — MAUGRE — ma(ug)re — I’m not sure which of the bits ‘of old’ refers to (ug is an archaic word and so is maugre); usually Azed makes this clear
11 After holiday, university doubled money for cleaner (6) — VACUUM — vac u u m
13 Testing vessels in college, pulse throbbing (6) — CUPELS — c (pulse)*
14 Quiet surrounds this country market (4) — SUKH — s(UK)h!
15 Bag I included as traveller round the Levant? (4) — SAIC — sa(I)c
16 Creature spayed late on – it’s operated on with gas (5) — STAIG — (it gas)*
17 Gosh! Course whereon Derby may be seen (7) — HATRACK — ha! track — the Derby hat
19 Upper house runs endless debate, chaotic (9) — BUNDESRAT — (runs debat{e})*
22 A number about erring and money, more or less pacy (9) — ANDANTINO — (and tin)* in (a no.)
24 African bird, male, live, gobbled by crocodile (7) — CROMBEC — cro(m be)c
27 Biblical tribes originally more than half degenerate? (5) — DECAD — decad{ent} — ref the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel
29 Pin removed from slightly blue solid graphite (4) — KISH — {pin}kish — blue in the pornographic sense
31 Sorcerer charm a genie bottles (4) — MAGE —  Hidden in charM A GEnie
32 It’s hard being confined to island for tar (6) — MALTHA — Malt(h)a
33 Indian post returned to a Plains Indian (6) — DAKOTA — dak (to)rev. a
34 Scots brittle (sort of): drug allowed (6) — TABLET — tab let
35 The ultimate in luxury, with bodily appetites and dalliance put
first (13) — FLESH-POTTERY — (luxur}y with (flesh potter) first — &lit. I think
Down
2 Banda e.g. with bits of brassware attached above decorated chest (5) — BAHUT — b{rassware} a{bove} hut
3 Divine protectress goes round Nigerian city dancing at Christmas (8) — JUNKANOO — Jun(Kano)o
4 Grunted when swimming, a rare sight in the pool these days (7) — TRUDGEN — (Grunted)* — who says it’s a rare sight these days? Chambers doesn’t.
5 Obscurity: in the end power replaces one (5) — DEPTH — death with its a replaced by p
6 Nocturnal bird recorded round Jamaica (6) — EVEJAR — eve(Ja)r — ever as in ‘the fastest time ever/recorded’ — some would say that it is inelegant to have ‘ever’ in the wordplay for both 1ac and 6dn, the first e in the same place
7 Male servant (5) — the clue-setting word clued by definition only
8 Take America as source of oil (4) — RUSA — r USA
9 Jellified stuff in barrel topping, not good (7) — TUNICIN — tun icin{g}
10 Rinky-dink derided about quavering bass (10) — MOSSBACKED — mocked round (bass)*
12 The majority will admit chick dropping this fashion is not really demure (10) — MOCK-MODEST — mo(c{hic}k mode)st
18 Warm a wire round major artery? (8) — AMICABLE — a (M1) cable
20 Revolting middle of January – stormy April’s following (7) — UPRISAL — {Jan}u{ary} (April’s)*
21 Odds and ends, but not this etc (7, 2 words) — AND THAT — ‘etc’ can be seen as ‘this and that’, and ‘this’ is removed
23 Is it felt from below round Labrador’s head? (6) — DEWLAP — (pa(L{abrador})wed)rev. — &lit
25 The old wash in end of tub, no longer easy (5) — BEATH — {tu}b eath
26 Part of Hitchcock’s instruction to cameraman indicating feature of Psycho shower scene? (5) — CUT TO — a cutto is a large knife, like the one that was used in the Psycho shower scene?
28 Obelisk topped elevation (5) — AGGER — {d}agger
30 It has its own jurisdiction, steep by the sound of it (4) — SOKE — “soak”

4 comments on “Azed 2287”

  1. Thanks Azed and John

    In 21dn, I took “etc” as the definition, and “Odds and ends” as meaning “this and that”, from which “this” was removed. Not sure that it really matters which was round you do it.

  4. A whole lot of rare words (how does he know them?)

    There’s an essay by Azed at the front of Chambers Crossword Dictionary which is rather interesting. I don’t think it’s available anywhere else sadly.

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