Anto, as usual, likes to stretch the boundaries of what’s expected in a Quiptic. But some of us have a public holiday today, so may have a bit of extra time for the puzzle.
A few obscurities, particularly the definition in 20d and the reverse wordplays in 21a, 28a and 17d (all fair, but not typical of a Quiptic). But lots of good clues: in particular I liked the anagram in 25a, the ingenious reversal in 7d, the misdirection in the definition of 8d, and the neat construction of 19d. Thanks Anto for the challenge.
Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | UP FOR IT |
Charged with sex game (2,3,2)
|
| UP FOR (charged with = “up” in front of a judge accused of a crime, as in “he’s up for breaking and entering”) + IT (slang for sex).
Game, as an adjective = up for it = willing. |
||
| 5 | SNIPPET |
Scrap university degree in a fit of pique (7)
|
| PPE (abbreviation for a university course in Philosophy, Politics and Economics) inserted into SNIT (a fit of pique = a bad-tempered mood). | ||
| 9 | SHIED |
Recoiled when guard abandoned line (5)
|
| SHIE[l]D (guard), without the L (line). | ||
| 10 | SAY NO MORE |
Be quiet? Gotcha! (3,2,4)
|
| Double definition. Stop talking; or an expression meaning “you don’t need to explain further, I understand what you mean”. | ||
| 11 | DOG WHISTLE |
This glowed at random to attract pet’s attention (3,7)
|
| Anagram (at random) of THIS GLOWED. | ||
| 12 | EGO |
I have nothing on, for example (3)
|
| O (zero = nothing) added to (on) EG (e.g. = Latin exempli gratia = for example).
I = ego = the self. |
||
| 14 | CARD CARRYING |
Official has bearing on character (4,8)
|
| CARRYING (bearing, as a verb) added to (on) CARD (character = an eccentric person).
As in “a card-carrying Labour party member” = an officially recognised one. I’d expect the phrase to be written with a hyphen, so (4-8) rather than (4,8), and both Chambers and Collins appear to agree with me. |
||
| 18 | FIRST OFFENCE |
Was Eve stealing an apple an unprecedented crime? (5,7)
|
| Double definition / cryptic definition. In the book of Genesis, humanity’s first disobedience against God; or a crime committed by someone who has no previous criminal record. | ||
| 21 | PUN |
Joke by gent is somewhat ripe (3)
|
| If you add PUN to GENT you get PUNGENT = smelly = somewhat ripe. | ||
| 22 | NEVER AGAIN |
It’s the end of continuous lossmaking (5,5)
|
| Continuous lossmaking = NEVER A GAIN. | ||
| 25 | SWIPE LEFT |
Wife spelt out way to reject potential date? (5,4)
|
| Anagram (out) of WIFE SPELT.
In mobile-phone dating apps, users “swipe right” to express interest in another user, or “swipe left” otherwise. Or so I’m told by those who like to use such things. |
||
| 26 | UNITE |
Couple held back by disquiet in university (5)
|
| Hidden answer, reversed (held back by . . .) in [disqui]ET IN U[niversity].
Couple, as a verb = join together. |
||
| 27 | EXHAUST |
Run out short extension over German’s house (7)
|
| EXT (short for extension) around HAUS (German for house). | ||
| 28 | PENDANT |
Medallion omitting first name would lead one to complain (7)
|
| PENDANT without the N = PEDANT = one who complains about small details. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | UPSIDE |
Without love, Oedipus complex may be an advantage (6)
|
| Anagram (complex) of [o]EDIPUS without the O (zero = love in tennis scoring). | ||
| 2 | FRINGE |
Band with iron around edge (6)
|
| RING (band, as in “wedding band” = a finger ring worn to symbolise marriage) with FE (chemical symbol for iron, from Latin ferrum) around it. | ||
| 3 | RUDE HEALTH |
Fitness of cheeky drinking toast? (4,6)
|
| RUDE (cheeky) + HEALTH (as in “to drink someone’s health” = to drink a toast to them).
Someone in “rude health” is well and physically fit. |
||
| 4 | TASKS |
Beginners in the arts seldom know Seurat’s works (5)
|
| First letters (beginners) of T[he] A[rts] S[eldom] K[now] S[eurat]. And if you’re a beginner in the arts, Georges Seurat was a French post-impressionist painter. | ||
| 5 | SAY PLEASE |
Pays off rent when told to ask nicely (3,6)
|
| Anagram (off) of PAYS, then LEASE (rent, as a verb = hire). | ||
| 6 | IDOL |
Wildfowl regularly an object of worship (4)
|
| Alternate letters (regularly) from [w]I[l]D[f]O[w]L. | ||
| 7 | PHONETIC |
Mention lack of credit rising? It might sound like that (8)
|
| CITE (mention) + NO HP (hire purchase = buying something “on credit” by paying in instalments), all reversed (rising = upwards in a down clue).
Phonetic = relating to the sound of words or letters. |
||
| 8 | THE ROUGH |
Where bad drivers end up, due to ingesting drug (3,5)
|
| THROUGH (due to = because of, as in “unfit through lack of exercise”), containing (ingesting) E (slang for the drug ecstasy or MDMA).
The “drivers” in this case are playing golf, in which a badly-aimed shot may end up in the “rough” = an area of uncut grass. |
||
| 13 | GRECIAN URN |
Doctor near curing poet’s Hellenic object of desire (7,3)
|
| Anagram (doctor, as a verb = fix) NEAR CURING.
Reference to the poem Ode on a Grecian Urn by John Keats. |
||
| 15 | DIFFERENT |
Check out crack (around two feet) that’s unusual (9)
|
| DIE (check out, in slang) + RENT (crack), around F F (two F = abbreviation for foot). | ||
| 16 | OFF PISTE |
Cancelled first part of exercise, as this route much harder (3,5)
|
| OFF (cancelled, as in “the game’s off because of rain”), then IST (1st = first) inserted into (part of?) PE (physical education = exercise classes).
At a ski resort, off piste = away from the prepared route, and therefore in more difficult terrain and/or snow conditions. |
||
| 17 | BRANDISH |
Wave moving right to left would be flatter (8)
|
| If you change the R (right) to L (left) you get BLANDISH (to persuade someone by flattery). | ||
| 19 | LA-DI-DA |
Pretentious girl going after young man (2-2-2)
|
| IDA (girl’s name) after LAD (young man). | ||
| 20 | INDENT |
Requisition National Trust to support short list (6)
|
| NT (abbreviation for National Trust) after (below, in a down clue = supporting) INDE[x] (list) without its last letter (short).
To make an official order for something; not a familiar word, but guessable from indenture = a legally-binding agreement. |
||
| 23 | EAT UP |
Take in a group of workers breaking record (3,2)
|
| A + TU (trade union = group of workers), inserted into (breaking) EP (extended-play record). | ||
| 24 | MENU |
List of options at the core of camera manual (4)
|
| Centre letters (the core) of [ca[ME[ra] [ma]NU[al]. |
I found this soluble but, as usual with Anto, it took me longer than the Cryptic, albeit not much.
I liked the anagrams for GRECIAN URN and DOG WHISTLE, and the succinct EXHAUST.
Thank you to Anto and Quirister.
Thanks Anto and Quirister
Very much harder than today’s cryptic.
I enjoyed this puzzle, particularly SWIPE LEFT!
I failed on SNIPPET. I had never heard of a SNIT, but I am not going to get into a huff about it.
Not quiptic. Period.
5d. Should the underlining (defn) not be for told to ask nicely
Petert @4. Snippet was my last one in, too, and I only got it from the crossers. SNIT is not in my edition of Chambers but the Concise OED says it’s North American – I’d have guessed obscure Scottish, especially if it HAD been in Chambers!
A great crossie. Too many good clues to mention. Thank you Quirister for your excellent blog.
Enjoyable puzzle but I’m wondering whether today’s Quiptic and Cryptic puzzles were published in each other’s place. Quiptic took me almost three times as long as the Cryptic.
Martin @6: yes, I wondered about “told to ask nicely”, but it doesn’t work grammatically. A child can be told to ask nicely, or told to say please, but “told to” isn’t part of the command “say please”.
“Oops, wrong crossword” – that’s what the editor should have said! Anyone who can compile this, thinking that it’s suitable as a Quiptic, must be simultaneously highly intelligent and utterly clueless. Thanks Quirister for sorting it out.
hapdaniel: I’ve removed your comments to avoid spoilers on the other puzzle.
Quirister@11 Thank you for that.
I don’t think this puzzle fits the definition of a Quiptic: ‘A web-only, cryptic puzzle for beginners and those in a hurry.’ I like doing two puzzles on a Monday but I do not want to spend so long on solving the Quiptic. Also, I disagree with Quirister about Anto stretching the boundaries of what’s expected. I have always assumed that it is the editor rather than the setter who selects what puzzle can go into the Quiptic slot, not the other way round.
Liked NEVER AGAIN.
I did not parse 14ac – and still do not understand what the ‘has bearing on character’ bit is there for.
Thanks, both.
Michelle @13: A CARD is a “CHARACTER” in old public schoolboy slang as i ” He’s a bit of a card” and CARRYING is a synonym of BEARING and is on/ attached to CARD
Thanks Quirister as I had a less satisfactory parsing of 1A (Up = charged, With = for ie with me or against me), did not know that meaning of Blandish (I assumed it meant flatter as in less interesting = bland), could not see 14A for ages as I wouldn’t consider it two words either, and am relieved to see INDENT as I had guessed that meaning in exactly the way you mention. I thought this was a great crossword which deserved a full daily slot which would then negate the ‘unsuitability’ charges levelled. Thanks Anto.
Good grief, this took me nearly two hours to finish, and even then I was left with IN_ENT and had to use a dictionary to verify that INDENT somehow meant to requisition—the “short list” part of the clue didn’t help me at all. Thanks to Anto for the humbling experience, and thanks Quirister for enlightening me on the clues that had me baffled. I feel I would have gotten CARD CARRYING much quicker had it been hyphenated—I needed every cross to finally fill it in.
Most of the clues I couldn’t parse were of the “modify the answer to get a different word” variety. Now I feel like PUN + gent = “ripe” should have been obvious, but I missed it while solving. PENDANT – n = pedant and BRANDISH “moving right to left” = blandish were the ones that gave me real trouble: somehow my brain combined “platter” and “flatware” to conclude that flatter = DISH, and I was racking my brain trying to figure out how to get BRAN from the rest of the clue. I also briefly had PANCAKE in place of PENDANT because I thought “medallion” might be some kind of obscure slang for it. RUDE HEALTH was a new expression for me.
NEVER AGAIN, GRECIAN URN, and SAY NO MORE were my favorite clues.
Like Gazzh@15, I thought BLANDISH meant less interesting, therefore flatter. I’ve never heard of BLANDISH meaning to persuade someone by flattery. Thanks Anto for the fun, and Quirister dotting the is and crossing the ts.
erlke44 and gazzh
Although you haven’t heard BLANDISH in the sense of flatter someone, you have probably heard of “blandishments” as incentives.
Like Petert I too couldn’t parse SNIPPET.
Enjoyed the puzzle but a bit of a nonsense having it in the Quiptic slot. Far too tough for the slot’s brief.
Definitely a case of the Quiptic and Cryptic having got swapped around, in our opinion. And we’d never heard of ‘snit’ so couldn’t parse SNIPPET.
Once again the two puzzles got dropped on the way to the photocopier…
¯\_(?)_/¯
BLANDISH was my favourite (I agree with muffin @18 that it’s more familiar as a verbal noun), but CARD CARRYING was good too, although I agree it should have been hyphenated.
It’ll always be LAH-DI-DAH to me and Jake Thackray
Fun but would agree it wasn’t very quiptic
Interesting all the people who haven’t heard of “snit”. I had that part, but couldn’t think of a degree that fitted. PPE only meant Personal Protective Equipment to me.
Not a quiptic, so beyond me.
I’m an American and “snit” seems like a reasonably common word to me as in “don’t get yourself in a snit” so I’d say the OED has it right.
And I agree with those who say la-di-da is missing some Hs.
I also agree on the difficulty of this! Since I’ve been away from cryptics for a while and don’t know many of your Britishisms, I’ve been going through some old quiptics before diving into the cryptics. This was good prep.