Guardian Quiptic 1055 Carpathian

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Thanks to Carpathian for a good introductory crossword – quick and cryptic. Definitions are underlined in the clues.

Across

1 Rolling dice proven to show foresight (10)

PROVIDENCE : Anagram of(Rolling) DICE PROVEN.

6 Friend immersed in public humiliation (4)

CHUM : Hidden in(immersed in) “public humiliation“.

9 Check cast-iron building by National Trust (10)

CONSTRAINT : Anagram of(… building) CAST-IRON plus(by) NT(abbrev. for the National Trust).

10 Compact weapons rejected (4)

SNUG : Reversal of(… rejected) GUNS(weapons).

12 Disparaging service providing what’s needed to sustain fission (8,4)

CRITICAL MASS : CRITICAL(disparaging/putting down) + MASS(a religious service).

Defn: … in nuclear physics.

15 Coffee wafting nice aroma (9)

AMERICANO : Anagram of(wafting) NICE AROMA.

Defn: An espresso diluted with hot water.

17 Complete removing top from drain (5)

UTTER : 1st letter of(top) deleted from(removing … from) “gutter”(a drain/a channel for flowing liquid).

18 Initial tree on street (5)

FIRST : FIR(a coniferous tree0 plus(on) ST(abbrev. for “street”).

19 Harmful nuisance I supplied money to for a while (9)

PESTILENT : PEST(a nuisance/a pain in the you-know-where) + I + LENT(supplied money for a while/gave a loan).

20 Fashionable container sinking and glowing (12)

INCANDESCENT : IN(fashionable/trendy) +CAN(a round metal container) + DESCENT(sinking, as a noun, as in “the sinking of the Titanic”).

24 Amphibian a fox swallows (4)

TOAD : A contained in(… swallows) TOD(a fox, in Scot and northern English dialect).

25 Hollow liquid dispenser with nothing in (10)

DEPRESSION : Anagram of(liquid) DISPENSER containing(with … in)O(letter signifying nothing/0).

26 Act back and forth (4)

DEED : Palindromic synonym for “act”(something done).

27 Commercial operation beginning to secure confessions (10)

ADMISSIONS : AD(short for “advertisement”/a commercial/promotional material) + MISSION(an operation, as in “Mission Impossible”) + 1st letter of(beginning to) “secure“.

Down

1 Personal assistant gets court agreement (4)

PACT : PA(abbrev. for “personal assistant”) plus(gets) CT(abbrev. for “court”).

2 All right to hold in animal sound (4)

OINK : OK(okay/all right/that’s fine) containing(to hold) IN.

Defn: … made by, specifically, a pig.

3 Now and then determined to hold tailless insect (12)

INTERMITTENT : INTENT(determined/fixed on doing something) containing(to hold) “termite”(a wood-eating insect) minus its last letter(tailless …).

4 Order stick to be raised on time (5)

ENACT : Reversal of(… to be raised, in a down clue) CANE(a stick, used for flogging or help in walking) placed above(on, in a down clue) T(abbrev. for “time”).

5 Aware of prisoner’s constant promises to pay (9)

CONSCIOUS : CON(short for “convict”/a prisoner)‘S + C(symbol for a numerical constant in mathematics) + IOUS(acronym from “I owe you” for promises to pay/debt acknowledgements).

7 Ten harpies dancing in female celebrations (3,7)

HEN PARTIES : Anagram of(… dancing) TEN HARPIES.

Something like this:

Image result for hen parties" … on the other hand…Image result for hen parties male stripper"

8 Judge publication first by value (10)

MAGISTRATE : MAG(short for “magazine”/a publication) + IST(“1st”/first, with the Roman numeral substitution) plus(by) RATE(to value/to evaluate).

11 Disturbing soil is insult to conjurors (12)

ILLUSIONISTS : Anagram of(Disturbing) SOIL IS INSULT.

13 Foolish rugby player with sex appeal attends regularly (4-6)

HALF-WITTED : HALF(short for “half back”/a rugby player playing in a position between the attacking forwards and the defending full backs) + W(abbrev. for “with”) + IT(sex appeal, as in the “it girls”) + 2nd, 4th and 6th letters of(… regularly) “attends“.

14 Strongly disapprove of accepting current fall in value (10)

DEPRECIATE : DEPRECATE(strongly disapprove of/deplore) containing(accepting) I(symbol for electrical current in physics).

16 Grasp collar (9)

APPREHEND : Double defn: 1st: To grasp/see the meaning of/to understand; and 2nd: To collar/arrest a criminal, possibly by grasping his/her collar.

21 Commanding officer right get soldier a dog (5)

CORGI : CO(abbrev. for “Commanding Officer”) + R(abbrev. for “right”) plus(get) GI(a soldier in the US Army).

22 Writer found in revolting moribund surroundings (4)

BIRO : Hidden in(found in … surroundings) reversal of(revolting) “moribund“.

Image result for biro"

23 Magnates, oddly, dismissed workers (4)

ANTS : “Magnates” minus its 2nd, 4th, 6th and 8th letters(oddly, dismissed).

Defn: …, a caste in a colony of social insects.

24 comments on “Guardian Quiptic 1055 Carpathian”

  4. This was fun – albeit one of those short ‘n’ sweet solves. Lots to like -including yet another take on INCANDESCENT. I particularly enjoyed INTERMITTENT, CRITICAL MASS and PESTILENT – and, having never heard of “tod”, couldn’t parse TOAD. Thanks to Carpathian for a classy puzzle and Scchua for the blog

  5. A fast solve, but fun nonetheless. I like HEN PARTIES. LOI was DEPRESSION, more because I was working pretty much top-to-bottom, left-to-right, than anything else.
    Thanks to Carpathian for a pleasant accompaniment to my morning coffee, and to Scchua for the blog.

  6. Good Quiptic crossword with smooth clues – just the right level for this slot.

    Like muffin @2, my favourite was DEPRESSION.

    Thanks scchua for the good, pictorial blog.

     

  7. Short and sweet indeed. I thought INTERMITTENT was especially clever and liked AMERICANO for its surface (surprised that apparently no other setter has noticed that particular anagram). Thanks to Carpathian and scchua.

  8. Dave @7 – AMERICANO  does seem to pop up quite a lot in crosswords. I guess it must be the only sensible word for a particular set of crossers? As you note, I’ve not seen that nice anagram of it in clueing before.

  9. I agree, a perfect Quiptic!

    Two queries though:

    In sschua’s blog surely it means the 1st, 3rd, 5th and 7th letters (the odd ones) are dismissed?

    And did anyone else find the surface for 21d read weirdly? Subject and verb don’t even agree…

     

  11. AllyGally @ 9

    Yes, I thought the same as you re 21d.

    In fact I thought it might be a typo, and there should be a ‘to’ in it:

    “Commanding officer right to get soldier a dog”

  12. That was fun. I wonder if there is a’to’ missing from the surface in 21d? ‘To get’ would make sense.
    Lots to like but depression was my favourite too.

  13. I wondered the same thing as others regarding the surface of 21d. The suggestion of a missing “to” makes sense to me.

    I wonder why the “latte police” never object to AMERICANO. The two cases seem perfectly parallel to me.

    (To belabor the point, some people object to defining LATTE as “coffee” because it actually means “milk” in Italian. Like others, I don’t accept this objection, because the word is invariably used in English as shorthand for “caffe latte”, which is a coffee drink. Mutatis mutandis, the same description applies to AMERICANO.)

    Like others, I found this to be a quick and enjoyable Quiptic. I didn’t remember the word TOD, so I had to come here for the parsing of 24a.

     

  14. Ted @ 13

    I think it grates because you’re using an Italian word (latte) to mean something that it doesn’t mean in Italian, whereas americano and espresso do.

    It’s also not quite parallel grammatically, as the latter two are adjectives, but caffellatte comes from caffè e latte, coffee and milk.

    However, much as I don’t like it, I think you have a point.  English is full of French words/expressions that that the French don’t use in that way: double entendre, connoisseur, crème de la crème.  And of course the French do the same with our words (le footing = jogging, le parking = car park / parking lot).  In language, if not in morality, wrong can eventually become right through majority usage.

  15. Highly enjoyable puzzle. Really pleased to see such good surfaces in a Quiptic – although 21d would benefit from a dash or something.

    Thanks scchua and also Carpathian – will keep our eye out for any of your future puzzles.

  16. First I’ve had a go at in a long time, and actually finished so that was very welcome! Had to guess toad though, never come across Tod before.

    Many enjoyable clues – pestilent, incandescent and conscious.

    Thanks both!

  18. DuncT @ 17

    Yes indeed – I remember when I first saw it, thinking how odd it looked, and that I really didn’t want to put it on my hair!  Still, at least it’s not “le genuine pooing”.

  19. EssexBoy@14

    I’m reminded of Delboy asking Rodney ‘…What’s the French for duck a l’orange?’

    Mangetout Mangetout – except the French would say pois gourmands of course!

    Well, as a beginner, I mastered Cyclops first, and now most Quiptics – onwards!

  20. I did it! I finally completed a Guardian Quiptic without cheating!

    Not too many Britishisms to trip me up this time. I didn’t know the rugby position, but was able to figure it out because I had ___f-witted, and I guessed 22d because I had the vague memory that biro was something but I thought I was confusing it with the artist Miro. Only after checking did I remember that Biro is a brand of ballpoint pen in the UK and that we weren’t talking about a person writer. Duh. (I kept trying to get ‘Poe’ in there, alas.) Strangely enough, I did know tod means fox, but damned if I remember where I learned that. Disney (or the author of the source material) did know this, as Tod’s the name of the fox in The Fox and the Hound.

    The last answer I managed was depression, as I couldn’t grok ‘liquid’ as an anagram indicator. Also my brain automatically added ‘to’ into the clue for 21d, so maybe that’s why it took this long to complete a quiptic, heh.

    Words: 1
    Characters: 4

  23. Apologies for the out of date comment but just felt I had to record my effort.  I have never done, let alone attempted, a cryptic crossword before this one*.  But due to lockdown have decided to try and learn how to do them from this website and the Guardian column  Can anyone recommend any other entry level cryptic crosswords to try?

    Got everything apart from 25a Depression – which everyone seems to have liked!  Never heard of a tod but guessed it.

    Thanks to scchua for all the great explanations. I’m going to have a go at another one now…

    @Daffie – enact as in ‘make something happen’ or ‘order it to be done’.

    *I’ve had a go at the Times Quick Cryptic but guess that doesn’t count.

     

     

  24. Fun quiptic and not too difficult (I am working my way through the archive; I think they should be daily!).

    Where I grew up (in N. Yorkshire) TOD meant ‘alone’ as in ‘on his tod’; never heard of the fox meaning. But I had T-A- from 13 and 14, so TOAD was easy to fill in.

    21d could have been ‘Commanding officer gets right soldier a dog’. I knew about CO and thinking of dogs in five letters beginning with CO easily gave the answer, confirmed by CO and GI.

    Thanks to Carpathian and sschua for this. And congrats to those not in the UK for doing it.

     

     

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