My weekly fix of interesting words and phrases. Thank you Azed.

ACROSS | ||
1 | MUSS | Millions start of revolution purged from Russia in conflict once (4) |
M (millions) then Revolution (first letter, start of) missing (purged) from RUSS (Russia) | ||
5 | LAMBAST | Give severe ticking-off to timid creature when last in subject (7) |
LAMB (timid creature) AS (when) subjecT (last letter in) | ||
10 | A LA POUPEE | A page publisher inserted on one side in the main, spread with various printing inks (9, 3 words) |
A P (page) OUP (Oxford University Press, publisher) inside ALEE (on the leeward side at sea, in the main) | ||
11 | SCRUBS | Prison get-up in theatre (6) |
double definition – Wormwood Scrubs prison and clothing in an operating theatre | ||
13 | EBON | What shows black unit at last being given pride of place? (4) |
B (black) ONE (unit) with the final letter (at last) put to the front (given pride of place). I can’t provide a coherent explanation of the definition. If you can then hats-off to you! | ||
15 | LAYARD | Boy holding light from behind archaeologist (6) |
LAD (boy) contains (holding) RAY (light) reversed (from behind) – Sir Austen Henry Layard | ||
16 | TRIGONOMETER | Specialist mathematician rooting around with with me shortened semester? (12) |
anagram (around) of ROOTING then ME and TERm (semester, shortened) | ||
17 | TENCH | One’s labelled ‘coarse’, right out of gutter (5) |
R (right) missing from TrENCH (gutter) – a fish, labelled as a coarse fish | ||
19 | PACO | Catching cold, OAP shivers – I’ve fine wool coat (4) |
anagram (shivers) of OAP contains (catching…is…) C (cold) | ||
21 | BHEL | Sort of quince syllabub he likes once outer parts are removed (4) |
found inside (once outer parts are removed) syllabuB HE Likes | ||
23 | AARGH | ‘Haemorrhage’ (re home breaking up with this) – it hurts like hell (5) |
HAEMORRHAGE is an anagram (breaking up) of RE HOME and AARGH (this, the solution) | ||
25 | SIPHONOPHORE | Marine organism I call tailless, found with work in beach (12) |
I PHONe (call, tailless) with OP (opus, work) all inside SHORE (beach) | ||
26 | FLAMBE | Traditional pancake, with beaten egg initially, distinctively glazed (6) |
FLAM (pancake, traditional indicates archaic) with first letters (initially) of Beaten Egg | ||
29 | LORY | Parrot heading off for mountainous region, in retreat (4) |
tYROL (mountainous region) missing first letter (head off) reversed (in retreat) | ||
30 | OOZILY | Animals rolling in lake, middle of bayou, in squelchy fashion (6) |
ZOO (animals) reversed (rolling) then I’ (in) L (lake) and baYou (middle letter of) | ||
31 | POUSSETTE | Me and you put in thrust with foot forming country dance figure (9) |
US (me and you) SET (put) inside POTE (thrust with foot) | ||
32 | GEHENNA | An awful place for Germans to go, North America (7) |
GEHEN (to go, German) then NA (North America) | ||
33 | LEWD | Hot? Not very, with day ending (4) |
LEW (lukewarm, not very hot) then (with…ending) D (day) | ||
DOWN | ||
1 | MASHTUB | Brewery vessel, bottom up, with wood, over half of it, inside (7) |
BUM (bottom) reversed (up) contains (with…inside) ASH (wood) with (over, in a down light) iT (half of) | ||
2 | SARK | It’s a famous dame, sprightly character but not lead in panto (4) |
SpARK (sprightly character) missing (but not) Panto (first letter, lead in) – it (the island of Sark) has (had?) a famous dame, Dame Sibyl Hathaway. I was held up for a long time on 10 across by entering SORT here, SpORT (lively character) and a sort is an exceptional woman (famous dame). | ||
3 | SPURGE | Garden species producing small branch, say, climbing (6) |
SPUR (small branch) then EG (say) reversed (climbing) | ||
4 | HOBSON-JOBSON | Rustic pair of lads holding post in festival excitement (12) |
HOB (a rustic) SON SON (lad, pair of) contains (holding) JOB (post) | ||
5 | LUSK | Idle fellow, once with line on river (4) |
L Line) with USK (the River Usk in Wales) | ||
6 | METAMORPHOSE | Develop as in classical verses poet hammers out about love (12) |
anagram (out) of POET HAMMERS containing (about) O (love) – as in Metamorphoses by Ovid | ||
7 | ALBATA | A pair of drums got up in sort of silver (6) |
A then TABLA (pair of drums) reversed (got up) | ||
8 | SCORECARD | Second string holding contest up? It records performance (9) |
S (second) CORD (string) contains RACE (contest) reversed (up) | ||
9 | TUND | Head up old copper completes beat as of old (4) |
NUT (head) up (reversed) followed by (…completes) D (penny, old copper) | ||
12 | ALOHA | First letter with central page given over to love cheers (5) |
ALpHA (the first letter) with the central letter P (page) replaced (given over to) by O (love) | ||
14 | ARCHILOWE | Dyestuff to feel as due, treat from Scots as payment once (9) |
ARCHIL (dyestuff) and OWE (to feel as due) | ||
18 | CANEH | Height below rod, or 6 cubits for some (5) |
H (height) follows (underneath) CANE (rod) | ||
20 | ONE-EYED | Like telly (monstrous!) somebody was watching (7) |
ONE (somebody) EYED (was watching) – the one-eyed monster is old slang for the TV set | ||
22 | EPARCH | Preach all over the place, being a Greek bishop (6) |
anagram (all over the place) of PREACH | ||
24 | GHAZEL | Grand wood for bacchanalian verse (6) |
G (grand) HAZEL (wood) | ||
26 | FLOG | Tout, reverse of what one associates with clubs (4) |
GOLF (what one associates with clubs) reversed | ||
27 | TOSA | Fighting dog a drunkard reared (4) |
A SOT (drunkard) reversed (reared) | ||
28 | GITE | Selection of cooking items for holiday house (4) |
found inside (selection of) cookinG ITEms |
Thanks PeeDee. I thought EBON just ‘(black as) ebony’, though the wording is wordy.
Thanks Azed as ever.
I did not get a few: TUND or LUSK, although the clues are intelligible; SARK, which is GK, and I would not have understood it even if I had guessed it; A LA POUPEE, for some reason I had fixed in my mind that this was three three-letter words, although the clue obviously does not say that. For MUSS, I read “Russia” as “USSR,” then subtracted the “r.” I also found the clue for EBON weird.
I got off to a good start last week when I picked up the paper for the first time, had quick look at the clues and immediately got 16ac. I then put the puzzle aside until late afternoon.
I then completed the puzzle Sunday night without too much trouble – or so I thought. When I picked it up again just now to see how I’d done, I noticed I’d not entered 33ac, one letter missing. My first thought was hot LEAD, but I couldn’t parse that. Lew for lukewarm is a new one for me.
Could 13ac be some sort of attempt at an &lit ref. the current “Black lives matter” movement?
Hi Nick @4, what a great idea! I can’t believe it though. One for the Guardian Cryptic rather than Azed.
Well, I can’t see what else it could be – otherwise the ‘black’ is doing double duty both as part of the strange definition and also fodder for the word play.
I assumed the allusion inn 13ac was to how black units in the US military tend to be airbrushed out of history, from the American Civil War onwards. (Google the Harlem Hellfighters.) But either way, “black” seems to be part of the definition and part of the word play.
I see that I had LORA instead of LORY (which I seem to remember from Alice in Wonderland?). LORA is also a kind of parrot, but clearly doesn’t parse. I liked HOBSONJOBSON – thought that SON must be in there somewhere, and HOBSON came to mind, then recourse to Chambers. Many thanks to Azed and PeeDee.
I wasn’t sure about 13 across either, but assumed that unit = bone (though I can’t really see why) and the wordplay involves moving the last letter to the front. Nick’s suggestion of an &lit is more convincing – the cryptic grammar works (I think) but the definition is so loose as to be more of a hindrance than a help!
There is a protester of said movement in the USA currently in jail awaiting court called “Ebon Ellis”.
Sometimes, due to no feedback from Azed, nobody ever will find out what/how the clue works. Alice’s rabbit hole…
Thanks to Azed for my weekly dictionary thumb. I took the definitIon in 13a to be “What shows black”, which led me to EBON. Then I finally parsed it as suggested by PeeDee. And thanks to him for the blog.
EBON: My guess is that this is intended as an &lit or maybe partial &lit, with the wordplay as explained by PeeDee to whom thanks for the blog. IMHO no reference to Black Lives Matter or anything like that.