Guardian Quiptic 1035 Carpathian

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Thanks Carpathian. Definitions are underlined in the clues.

Across

1 Dieticians upset about pages revealing cause of abdominal pain (12)

APPENDICITIS : Anagram of(… upset) DIETICIANS containing(about) PP(abbrev. for “pages”, as in “pp 10-20” in a book).

8 Japanese art leaders of army museum kept in unfinished base (7)

ORIGAMI : 1st letters, respectively, of(leaders of) “army museum” contained in(kept in) “origin”(the base/the starting point) minus its last letter(unfinished …).

Defn:  … of paper folding.

9 Past US agent given too much dough? (7)

OVERFED : OVER(past/done with) + FED(short for a US Federal agent, of the FBI, say).

Defn: …, not money but the mixture used for baking bread or pastry.

11 Cooking utensil ejected by posh lady, half-cut (7)

SPATULA : SPAT(ejected by force from a mouth) plus(by) U(indicating something posh/upper-class) + 1st 2 letters of(…, half-cut) “lady“.

12 Skits based on Salvation Army fatigues (7)

SATIRES : SA(abbrev. for the Salvation Army) + TIRES(fatigues/cause to feel exhausted).

13 Doctor, for example, beginning to swallow sediment (5)

DREGS : DR(abbrev. for “doctor”) + EG(abbrev. for “exempli gratia”/for example) + 1st letter of(beginning to) “swallow“.

14 Very happy bird with a ring (4-1-4)

COCK-A-HOOP : COCK(a male bird, especially of domestic fowl) plus(with) A + HOOP(a ring/a circular band of metal, wood or similar material).

16 Tries again with a little bit of laborious practice (9)

REHEARSAL : RE-HEARS(tries again in a court of law) plus(with) A + 1st letter of(little bit of) “laborious“.

19 Some grapes topping sauce (5)

PESTO : Hidden in(Some) “grapes topping“.

21 Quarrels stop intense desire returning before first thing on Sunday (7)

BARNEYS : BAR(to stop by presenting a barrier, literally or figuratively) + reversal of(… returning) YEN(an intense desire/yearning for) placed before(before) 1st letter of(first thing on) “Sunday“.

Defn: …, especially noisy ones, in British slang.

23 Snatch back first-class number for a good deal (7)

BARGAIN : Reversal of(… back) GRAB(to snatch, by force) + AI(A1/first class, with the Roman numeral substitution) + N(symbol for an unspecified number in mathematics).

24 Chose Juliet for line to be removed (7)

EJECTED : “elected”(chosen, as in, well, an election) with “J”(letter represented by “Juliet” in the phonetic alphabet) replacing(for) “l”(abbrev. for “line”).

25 Idiotic square like one before (7)

ASININE : NINE(the square of the number, 3) placed after(… before) [AS(like, as used in similes) + I(Roman numeral for “one”)].

26 Bird chewed pretty morsel (6,6)

STORMY PETREL : Anagram of(chewed) PRETTY MORSEL.

Down

1 Arouse tailless beast with time and energy (7)

ANIMATE : “animal”(a beast) minus its last letter(tailless …) plus(with) T(abbrev. for “time”) plus(and) E(symbol for “energy” in physics).

2 Stagger up after exercise class with advanced high-protein snack? (7)

PEANUTS : Reversal of(… up, in a down clue) STUN(to stagger/to shock) placed under(after, in a down clue) [PE(abbrev. for “physical education”/a period in school for physical exercises) plus(with) A(abbrev. for “advanced”)].

Defn: Snack food containing a higher proportion of protein than other nuts.

3 Troublesome individuals represented in a census (9)

NUISANCES : Anagram of(represented) IN A CENSUS.

4 I swindle small people who are widely admired (5)

ICONS : I + CON(to swindle/to deceive) + S(abbrev. for “small”).

5 I unusually retain resistance to change (7)

INERTIA : I + anagram of(unusually) RETAIN.

6 Popular plant has circle in hell? (7)

INFERNO : IN(popular/in fashion) + FERN(a flowerless plant with feathery fronds) plus(has) O(letter representing a circle).

7 Believe fit to be great (12)

CONSIDERABLE : CONSIDER(to believe to be, as in “I consider him a friend”) + ABLE(fit/with the necessary qualities to do something).

Defn: …/much.

10 Frustrated detectives given job (12)

DISAPPOINTED : DIS(plural of abbrev. for “Detective Inspector”) + APPOINTED(given a job/a post).

15 Honour A-lister fee (9)

CELEBRATE : CELEB(short for “celebrity”/an A-lister) + RATE(a fee/a charge for a service, say).

Answer: To honour or praise publicly, as in “The newspaper article celebrates the career of..”

17 Crop top under hideous Afghan robe, initially (7)

HARVEST : VEST(a top/article of clothing for the upper half of the body) placed below(under, in a down clue) 1st letters, respectively, of(…, initially) “hideous Afghan robe“.

18 Adult with superior accessory (7)

ABETTER : A(abbrev. for “adult”) plus(with) BETTER(superior in some specific way).

Defn: An … in the commitment of a crime, say.

19 More sprightly lord embracing queen, king and setter (7)

PERKIER : PEER(a lord, one of the nobles) containing(embracing) [R(abbrev. for “Regina”/a queen) + K(abbrev. for “king”, in chess notation) plus(and) I(self-referential pronoun for the setter of this crossword)].

20 Dog jumps up to grab panini in the middle (7)

SPANIEL : Reversal of(… up, in a down clue) LEAPS(jumps) containing(to grab) middle 2 letters of(… in the middle) “panini“.

22 Unfortunately sneaky about commercial (5)

SADLY : SLY(sneaky/cunning) containing(about) AD(abbrev. for “advertisement”/a commercial promoting a product, say).

7 comments on “Guardian Quiptic 1035 Carpathian”

  1. Pretty straightforward Quiptic fare today – well judged, pleasing clues and does exactly what is asked of it. I was not convinced by “sotrmy petrel”, the bird being a “storm petrel”. A bit of a case of “someone has used the term so it is allowed”.

    “spaniel”, “perkier” and “appendicitis” (COtD) all beautifully constructed. Thank you for the images and blog scchua, and for the puzzle Carpathian.

  3. Very good Quiptic, just at the right level in my opinion.

    I don’t think one can object to STORMY PETREL as it’s in all the major dictionaries.

    Thanks Carpathian and scchua.

  4. A good and fitting Quiptic: mostly easy clues, but not write-ins. I didn’t know either COCK-A-HOOP or BARNEYS, but good clueing followed by confirmation from Collins allowed me to add these to my growing list of British slang terms.

    Thanks to Carpathian and Scchua.

  6. I agree this was good fun with a pleasing selection of clues – and since COCK-A-HOOP and STORMY PETREL were my first two completed, for a while I thought there might be a bird theme. Incidentally, DaveinNCarolina, I’m afraid the former and “barneys” aren’t much used in British conversation anymore; I haven’t heard either in yonks. No harm in trying to revive them, though…
    Thanks to Carpathian for an enjoyable hour on a Monday morning, and to Sschua for the blog.

  7. Stormy petrel is in the dictionaries, but, as they point out, it’s an obsolete name for the Storm petrel, so “once” or “old” would have been better.

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