Independent 11484 / Filbert

BASICS (fundamentals; most important elements of; staples)

BICS (ballpoint pens; writer’s cheap tools) containing (gripping) AS (like)

B (AS) ICS

OBSIDIAN (black vitreous acid volcanic rock; Blackrock)

OBSIDIAN (reversed [back] hidden word in [contribution to] FOREIGN AID IS BORROWED)

OBSIDIAN<

PIRANHA (ferocious S American river fish; a  creature that nips, from a school of fish)

(I RAN [managed]) contained in (to enter) PH (public house; pub) + A

P (I RAN) H A

STRIPES (a design where lines are repeated to form STRIPES)

TRIPE (rubbish; bunk) contained in (on board) SS (steamship) – on board is often used to describe some letters being inside a ship

S (TRIPE) S

ERMINTRUDE (woman’s name)

ER (expressing hesitation whilst thinking; let me think) + MINT (a type of sweet) + RUDE (slang for sexy)

ER MINT RUDE

STUB (a point that has been blunted; a bad point)

BUTS (objections) reversed (overturned)

STUB<

SOBER (serious; sombre; not amused)

SO (very; terribly) + B (British) + ER (Elizabeth Regina; former queen)

SO B ER

GUTENBERG (reference Johannes GUTENBERG [1400 approx-1468], German inventor of letterpress printing; old printer)

Anagram of (broken) BUT GREEN + G (left hand letter of GREY)

GUTENBER* G

ESTIMABLE (respected; august)

Anagram of (bats) METABOLISE excluding (without) O (chemical symbol for oxygen)

ESTIMABLE*

TOTEM (any species of living or inanimate thing regarded, and often venerated, as an outward symbol of an existing intimate unseen relation, often adopted as an emblem or symbol of a family; that’s symbolic)

TOTE (a TOTE bag is a large bag for shopping etc) + M (first letter of [opening of] MAGGIE)

TOTE M

HOED (in the garden, scraped or dug up weeds or separated stems from toots)

H (husband) + OED (Oxford English Dictionary, which among other things is a long list of words)

H OED

ALTOGETHER (completely)

ALTER contains (walls) an anagram of (rebuilt) HE GOT

ALT (O GET H*) ER

MECCANO (a construction toy that was originally made from little nuts, bolts and shaped pieces of metal)

(C [circa; roughly] + C [Roman numeral for one hundred]) contained in (in) MEAN (lowly; shabby; dirty) + O (old)

ME (C C) AN O

NIGHTLY (every night spent without fail in bed [?])

NIGHTLY (sounds like [delivered] Mr KNIGHTLEY, husband of EMMA in Jane Austen’s novel of the same name)

NIGHTLY

DOPAMINE (chemical found in brain tissue that acts as a neurotransmitter; nerve agent)

Anagram of (mobilise) PM ON IDEA

DOPAMINE*

ADONIS (particularly handsome youth or young man, often selected to be a male model)

(SINO [Chinese] + DA‘ [dad; father]) all reversed (in the mirror)

(AD ONIS)<

BOPPERS (dancers)

BO (body odour; smell; a hum) + PP (pianissimo; very quietly) + ERSE (word sometimes used for the Irish Gaelic language) excluding the final letter (a lot of) E

BO PP ERS

SCRUM (a SCRUM in Rugby Union is formed by the two opposing packs pf forwards in order to fight for the ball)

SCRUMP (to gather or take windfalls, hence to steal apples from orchards) excluding the final letter (nearly all) P

Could also possibly be seen as a double definition SCRUM (fight) and SCRUM (the Rugby definition) as well as the wordplay

SCRUM

CONUNDRUM (a puzzling question; something hard to understand)

(NUN [sister] contained in ([being taken in by] (COD [fake; counterfeit]) + RUM (Bacardi is a brand of rum)

CO (NUN) D RUM

BESIDE THE POINT (irrelevant)

BESIDE THE POINT (the units [figures to the left of the point in a decimal number] and the tenths, thousandths etc [figures to the right of the point)  cryptic definition

BESIDE THE POINT

INRO (small Japanese container for pills and medicines)

Anagram of (wrought) IRON

INRO*

INPATIENT (person in a hospital ward)

(IN [wearing] + PATENT [obvious]) containing (bandages) (I [Roman numeral for one)]

IN PAT (I) ENT

NOSEBAG (container for oats to be eaten by a horse for example)

NO SEBAG (Simon Montefiore’s middle name is SEBAG, and he is usually referenced in full as Simon SEBAG Montefiore)

NO SE BAG

BARRAGE BALLOON (an artificial barrier formed by BALLOONS [high fliers] during the Second World War as part of the air defence system managed by the Ministry of Defence [MOD])

(BAR [pub] + LOON [lunatic; crackpot]) containing (tackles) an anagram of (complex) ALGEBRA

BAR (RAGE BAL*) LOON

BUTTERCUP (a plant used by children as a test for deciding whether someone likes or dislikes butter, ie a guide to dairy intolerance.   If you hold a BUTTERCUP under your chin and there is a yellow glow on your chin, then you are deemed to like butter.  There seems to be very little, if any,  scientific logic behind the test)

B (book) + UTTER (complete) + CUP (mug)

NUTMEGGED (if your footballing opponent plays the ball through your legs and collects it again behind you then you are said to have been embarrassingly beaten or NUTMEGGED)

NUT (head) + MEG (girl’s name) + GED (letters remaining in AGREED after letters 1, 3 and 5 [every so often] have been dropped)

NUT MEG GED

EXHUMED (taken out of a place of burial, the contrary of being buried)

EX (former) + HUME (reference Basil HUME [1923-1999], Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster from 1976 until his death.  HUME was also a Cardinal) + D (dead)

EX HUME D

MARTYRS (principled people who often die as a result of strict adherence to their beliefs in the face of significant opposition)

Anagram of (to reform) TRY contained in (in) MARS (a hostile world for humans)

MAR (TYR*) S

HIT ON (make sexual advances to; seduce)

HON (honey; darling) containing (nurses) IT (the very thing)

H (IT) ON

WARM (friendly)

WAR (disagreement resolved by killing) + M (millions)

WAR M