Independent 11,185 by Monk

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Monk is in charge of today’s mental exercise session.

I thought this was quite tricky: we have some obscure words (13a was somewhere at the back of my memory, but 17a was an unfamiliar variant and I’d never heard of 18d), an obscure definition at 26a, and a few other definitions that push the boundaries a bit – though in that category I liked 27a and 5d, as well as the rather earthy 8d. There seems to be a mini-theme of reduplicated words (4a, 10a and 16d), with a few other entries of a similar shape (1a, 24a, 1d and 15d). Thanks Monk for the challenge.

Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.

ACROSS
1 HOTPOT
Dish served in nightclub, tip for service not included (6)
HOT[s]POT (nightclub), not including the first letter (tip) of S[ervice].

A meat stew, or an Asian method of cooking in hot stock.
4 CHITCHAT
Gossip about problem before bit of a kip (8)
C (c = abbreviation for Latin circa, about = approximately) + HITCH (problem) + AT (bit of a kip).  The last part of this is a favourite trick of crossword setters: the kip is the currency unit of Laos, divided into 100 at or att. With the exchange rate in thousands of kip to one pound / dollar, the at is now pretty much obsolete except in Crosswordland.
9 REGAIN
Get back to Queen after America’s position changes (6)
REGINA (Latin for Queen), with the position of the A (America) changed.

The definition could be “get back to” or just “get back”, as in “regain independence” – it works either way.
10 FLIP-FLOP
Go bonkers with fiasco following White House volteface? (4-4)
FLIP (go bonkers, in the figurative sense of getting very angry) with FLOP (fiasco = complete failure) following it.

Slang, mainly US (so for example in the White House), for a policy reversal (volteface) – in the UK we’d probably call it a U-turn.
12 HOTTISH
Hotel north of the border (not self-catering) is a bit warm (7)
H (abbreviation for hotel) + [sc]OTTISH (north of the border), without SC (abbreviation for self-catering).
13 SYNCOPE
Faint copy almost sent out (7)
Anagram (out) of COPY + SEN[t] without its last letter (almost).

Medical term for a faint = a brief loss of consciousness.
14 TESSELLATION
Minor once recalled breaking into a let, ripping tiling? (12)
LESS (minor = smaller), reversed (once recalled), inserted into (breaking) an anagram (ripping) of INTO A LET.

Mathematical term for covering a surface with geometric shapes (tiles).
17 ANTEPRANDIAL
Possibly let Adrian nap before dinner (12)
Anagram (possibly) of LET ADRIAN NAP.

Rather formal (or facetious) English for “before dinner”; I’m more familiar with “preprandial”, often used to describe drinks, but the meaning is the same.
22 HELICAL
Twisted, defrocked parson fuelling uproar (7)
[v]ICA[r] (parson), without the outer letters (defrocked), inserted into HELL (uproar, as in “all hell broke loose”).

In the shape of a helix (like a coiled spring) = twisted.
23 ANAHEIM
US city in Maine chaotic without a hospital (7)
Anagram (chaotic) of MAINE, containing (without, in the old sense of outside) A + H (abbreviation for hospital).

City in the Los Angeles area of California.
24 LIFELINE
Item for saving lion and tiger, say, that’s not working (8)
LI[on] + FELINE (tiger, say), without ON (working).
25 FACIAL
Nothing at all, still, shortly around one o’clock? (6)
FA (nothing at all; the term may be derived from “sweet Fanny Adams” or from something rather less polite), then CAL[m] (still) without its last letter (short), around I (one in Roman numerals).

A rather tenuous definition: clock = slang for the face, so o’clock = of the clock = facial.
26 INSTINCT
Charged or confused when police chief absconds (8)
IN[di]STINCT (confused = unclear), without DI (Detective Inspector = police chief).

Instinct, as a rare or archaic adjective = infused (charged) with something.
27 HAREEM
WAGs perhaps quickly run setter over (6)
HARE (as a verb = quickly run), then ME (the setter of this crossword) reversed (over).

Alternative spelling of harem = traditionally a ruler’s “wives and girlfriends”.
DOWN
1 HIROHITO
Former leader of hard tax officials tense, in a state (8)
H (hard) + IR (Inland Revenue = former name for British tax authorities), then T (abbreviation for tense) in OHIO (a US state).

Fomer emperor of Japan.
2 TIGHTISH
Rather neat hose wrapped round middle of conical hydrant (8)
TIGHTS (hose = legwear) around the middle letter of [con]I[cal], then H (symbol for a water hydrant, on maps or street signs).

Tight = neat = well-organised, as in “running a tight ship”. But it’s a pity that we have two crossing entries with the same -ish suffix.
3 OXIDISE
Neat dies I cast become rusty (7)
OX (neat = a castrated bull) + anagram (cast = thrown) of DIES I.
5 HOLY SATURDAY
Lent, ultimately having had extremely risky outlays collapsing (4,8)
Anagram (collapsing) of HAD + outer letters (extremely) of R[isk]Y + OUTLAYS.

Last day of Lent (the period leading up to Easter), so “Lent ultimately”.
6 TAP INTO
Cheers horse — mine, of sorts? (3,4)
TA (cheers = slang for “thank you”) + PINTO (a horse with a two-colour coat).

Mine = tap into = “extract something useful from”. I’m not sure why we need “of sorts?”, except perhaps to indicate that it’s a rather loose usage.
7 HOLLOW
Hungry Hippo, empty and d-depressed? (6)
H[ipp]O (empty = inner letters removed) + L-LOW (low = depressed = in an unhappy mood, with the initial letter repeated as suggested by d-depressed).

Collins Dictionary recognises “hollow” as meaning “hungry”, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard it used that way.
8 TUPPED
Did ewe turn up outside department? Au contraire (6)
The “Au contraire” tells us to do the opposite of what the wordplay suggests: so we have to reverse (turn) DEPT (department) outside UP, not the other way round.

Tup, as a verb = what a ram does to a ewe to produce lambs.
11 PHILHELLENIC
Greek prince and daughter of Zeus I see around lake, loving Greek culture (12)
PHIL (rather disrespectful nickname for the late Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who was born a prince in the Greek royal family) + HELEN (according to Greek mythology, the daughter of Zeus and Leda) + I + C (the letter, sometimes written as “see”), around L (lake).
15 LIFELIKE
Realistic 24, king taking knight? (8)
LIFELI[n]E (24 = answer to 24 across), with K (king) instead of the N (knight, in chess notation).
16 FLIMFLAM
Nonsense movie on endless love getting one demoted (8)
FILM (movie) + FLAM[e] (love, as a noun = someone you love, as in “an old flame” = a former lover) without the last letter (endless), with the I (one in Roman numerals) moved one place towards the end (downwards, in a down clue = demoted).
18 NUCELLI
Parts of plant eccentric Uncle Israel pulled up (7)
Anagram (eccentric) of UNCLE, then IL (ISO code for Israel) reversed (pulled up, in a down clue).

Parts of a plant ovule (structure containing female reproductive cells). Rather a specialist word, so I had to guess the anagram and then ask Wikipedia for confirmation.
19 NIAGARA
Falls in war against rising (7)
Hidden answer (in . . .), reversed (rising = upwards in a down clue) in [w]AR AGAIN[st].

Falls = waterfalls, on the US / Canada border.
20 CHILLI
Short feature about unfavourable hot dish (6)
CHI[n] (facial feature), without the last letter (short), around ILL (unfavourable, as in “ill-fated”).

Usually short for chilli con carne = chilli with meat, though vegetarian alternatives are available.
21 BLUFFS
Banks deceive customers when closing? (6)
BLUFF (to deceive, especially by feigning abilities or assets that one doesn’t have) + last letter (closing = ending) of [customer]S.

Bluff, as a noun = bank = cliff.

10 comments on “Independent 11,185 by Monk”

  1. TAP INTO:

    Looks like the reference is to ore/mineral sorting
    (Mineral sorting is a physical process in which particles are separated on the basis of their mineralogical composition).

  3. Thanks Monk and Quirister

    I think the theme, or Monk’s usual signature, is simply that the eight-letter solutions all consist of pairs of four-letter words with a variation in their third slot.

  4. Simon @3: thanks, that makes sense. I hadn’t noticed that TIGHTISH and INSTINCT also matched the pattern.

  5. A mental exercise session that was too strenuous for me. INSTINCT at 26a was the only word I could think of to fit the crossers but I had no idea of how it meant ‘charged’ and I was never going to get FACIAL. I saw the similar looking eight letter words but couldn’t specify the theme any more than this and missed a few other things like the ‘bit of a kip’ which I now do remember having seen before.

    I have to admit to being well and truly beaten by this one but enjoyed the challenge anyway.

    Thanks to Monk and Quirister

  6. Thanks both. Suffice to say I had to check most answers here, having needed some assistance to solve, and having fallen victim to the various archaic and obscure meanings and spellings, owing to which I lost confidence in taking on the fairer and more admirable clues

  8. nicbach @ 7

    The most common appearance these days of ‘neat’ meaning bovine is “neat’s foot oil’.

  9. Quite a workout! Had it not been for the mini-theme I would have had no chance. 15D/24A was a generous entry to the maze. Defeated by the definitions of FACIAL and INSTINCT but bunged the words in anyway (the latter solely from the letter pattern). Thanks to Quirister for explaining everything and to Monk for the brain-stretching!

  10. Lovely puzzle. Thank you for the help in parsing the AT in CHITCHAT.

    Had a feeling there was a theme but couldn’t put my finger on it, quite, so the comments have been good, too.

    Thank you, Monk.

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