A carefully and concisely clued Quiptic from Carpathian, with nothing to frighten the reindeers. As it should be. It only remains for me to send my best wishes for 2021 to fellow Quiptic bloggers, setters, contributors and lurkers.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Deeply disturb small milliner
SHATTER
A charade of S and HATTER.
5 Husband getting in metal flying machine
CHOPPER
An insertion of H in COPPER.
9 Pound found in bathrobe
THROB
Hidden in baTHROBe.
10 Bad actor promises to be appalling
ATROCIOUS
A charade of (ACTOR)* and IOUS for the plural of IOU, I owe you.
11 Contemplation of mirror image
REFLECTION
A dd.
12 Revolutionary animal liberationist keeping account
BILL
Hidden reversed in animaL LIBerationist.
14 Lead giant troops astray
PROTAGONIST
(GIANT TROOPS)*
18 Pocket fitting
APPROPRIATE
A dd, although they are pronounced differently.
21 Called out robust greeting
HAIL
A homophone of HALE.
22 Cautious store receiving censure
DELIBERATE
A charade of DELI and BERATE.
25 Skilfully control worker and work
MANOEUVRE
A charade of MAN and OEUVRE.
26 Ready after time for offal
TRIPE
A charade of T and RIPE.
27 Toy with operation on small lumps
DOLLOPS
A charade of DOLL, OP and S. A lovely word, most used in serving food, I fancy.
28 Run back around troops causing distress
TORMENT
An insertion of MEN in TROT reversed. The insertion indicator is ‘around’ and the reversal indicator is ‘back’.
Down
1 Settled anger in parody
SATIRE
A charade of SAT and IRE.
2 Notice disagreement is rootless
ADRIFT
A charade of AD and RIFT.
3 Measure abs peloton developed
TABLESPOON
(ABS PELOTON)*
4 Respond with regard to law
REACT
A charade of RE and ACT.
5 Element revolting artist added to a sauce
CARBONARA
A charade of CARBON, RA for ‘artist’ reversed, and A. Most often, if not exclusively, seen with pasta dishes.
6 Connected regularly at that time
ONCE
The even letters of cOnNeCtEd.
7 Expert to welcome short snack in bar
PROHIBIT
A charade of PRO, HI and BIT[E].
8 Decided to repair bottom of shoe split by tips of umpteen tacks
RESOLUTE
An insertion of U and T for the first letters of ‘umpteen’ and ‘tacks’ in RESOLE.
13 Affectionate note from landlord after nothing
LOVE LETTER
A charade of LOVE in its tennis sense and LETTER.
15 Love rues dancing on top of stool for us
OURSELVES
(LOVE RUES)* followed by S. The anagrind is ‘dancing’ and ‘on top of’ works because it’s a down clue.
16 Grasped stout and sheltered
FATHOMED
A charade of FAT and HOMED.
17 Voluntary platoon dispersed around island
OPTIONAL
An insertion of I in (PLATOON)* The insertion indicator is ‘around’ and the anagrind is ‘dispersed’.
19 Gorge dinner a vineyard partly supplies
RAVINE
Hidden in dinneR A VINEyard.
20 Loathe getting low grades on exam
DETEST
A charade of D, E and TEST.
23 Clumsy writer getting upset during sex
INEPT
An insertion of PEN reversed in IT. The insertion indicator is ‘during’ and the reversal indicator is ‘upset’.
24 Toy lightsaber Ewoks gave Obi-Wan initially
LEGO
The initial letters of the second, third, fourth and fifth words of the clue give you the ever-popular toy whose name is derived from the Danish words for ‘play well’.
Many thanks to Carpathian for the final Quiptic of 2020. The Quiptic Crossword was 21 years old last month, and we forgot to sing it Happy Birthday.
Very nice Quiptic
Favourites: MANOEUVRE, FATHOMED, TORMENT
Just how a Quiptic should be. NW dropped in very quickly but then had to do some proper solving. I liked MANOEUVRE, FATHOMED and my COTD was DOLLOPS. Ta Pierre & Carpathian.
Very enjoyable. Just the right level of difficulty.
I really enjoyed this one. There were a few I could not parse at first but got them in the end.
I thought there were lots of lovely clues. Among my favourites were MANOEUVRE, ATROCIOUS (IOUs is wonderful), DOLLOPS CARBONARA.
Just right for a foggy Monday morning.
Thanks to Carpathian and Pierre.
All the best to you too, Pierre.
Solid, accessible stuff from Carpathian today. He(?) is definitely the most consistent when it comes to Quiptic difficulty level. ATROCIOUS and CARBONARA my favourites.
One reindeer, two reindeer.
Thank you, Boffo. To respond to your question mark, and if we’re still allowed to use gender-specific third person pronouns, Carpathian is a she.
What a great end to the year. Hope SheffieldHatter sees 1a. Many thanks to Carpathian and Pierre. All the best for 2021 to one and all.
…thanks for your prompting, Pauline! Enjoyed doing this quite quickly, though held myself up with a careless GATHERED instead of FATHOMED. DOLLOPS is, as Pierre says, a lovely word; which reminds me that I have a few dollops of ice cream left to go with the remains of my Christmas pudding.
A fine Quiptic to end the year. Particularly enjoyed: MANOEUVRE, TABLESPOON
Parsed PROHIBIT a tad differently, w/HI=”welcome, short” (i.e. a short welcome), and BIT=”snack”, e.g. “a little food to eat”=”a snack to eat”=”a bit to eat”. Either parsing seems fine?
Cheers to setter/blogger/commenters… and best wishes to all for a brighter year ahead!
Many thanks to Carpathian for ending the year in fine style. And Pierre for completing my parsings. I am with OddOtter in respect to PROHIBIT, but both give the answer.
Best wishes to all from a cloudy morning down here.
Agree that this was a pleasant solve, not too hard but not a write in either. I actually saw both possible parsings of PROHIBIT, and thought “it works both ways”. I don’t think of dollops as lumps, though. Lumps sounds too sold to me. Thanks to Carpathian and Pierre, and indeed everyone involved with this site.
*solid
Happy New Year to all, and many thanks to Pierre for all his help this last year.
Great quiptic, had not heard of oeuvre before, but the answer had to be.
Thanks both…
Thanks Carpathian and Pierre for a great puzzle and blog. I rather loved the whole thing but was caused maximum pain, brain stretch and enjoyment by DELIBERATE and FATHOMED. Perfect!