Independent 10,901 by Atrica

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An excellent Monday puzzle with a good mixture of clues.

The theme was hard to miss on this occasion. It revolved around contranyms (also called Janus words) which are words which have completely opposite meanings when used in different contexts. In one of my earlier blogs, I mentioned worst as an example. It can be used as a synonym for best in the sense of "besting someone" but obviously normally means the exact opposite. This puzzle expands on the theme and it was fascinating to see just how many examples there are.

ACROSS
1 CLEAVE
Split, or stick together, being caught with time off (6)

DD and c{aught} + leave(=time off).
5 DETECTOR
Radar perhaps surprisingly protected after power cut (8)

([P]rotected)*
9 SANCTION
Permit, or penalise, criminal actions? Not at first (8)

DD and actions* + n[ot]
10 SCREEN
Hide, or show, Native American between two poles (6)

DD and cree between S{outh} and N{orth}
11 CARABINERO
Rifle protecting a revolutionary, or an officer (10)

Carbine around a + or<
12 FAST
Moving rapidly, or stuck when grabbed by foot (4)

DD + as(=when) in f{oo}t
13 STICKS BY
Sides with, or switches before saying “cheerio” (6,2)

Sticks(=switch in the sense of a type of rod or cane) + hom of bye
16 TWANGS
Wasn’t mad about type of string sounds from banjo, maybe (6)

Wasn't* around G
17 MINNOW
After a short time, gained back unimpressive catch (6)

Min{ute} + won<
19 GARMENTS
Member wearing man’s clothes (8)

Arm in gents
21 PEER
Look for someone at one’s own level, or higher? (4)

Triple def with one as a possible contranym, depending whether you consider a peer of the realm to be "superior".
22 AIRMANSHIP
Skill of crew aboard the Hindenburg? (10)

&Lit. Man(=crew as a verb) in airship.
25 STENCH
Husband follows peculiar scent or horrible smell (6)

H{usband} after scent*
26 INTREPID
Bold, or at first lost in terrible perdition (8)

(Perditi[o]n)* – first letter of "or" removed.
27 ISOMORPH
It has the same shape as Moorish palace’s first construction (8)

(Moorish p[alace])*
28 RESIGN
Leave (or again join) regime restricting society (6)

DD (second in the sense of re-sign) + reign around s{ociety}
DOWN
2 LIANA
In Mali, a natural climber (5)

Hidden in "Mali a natural"
3 ACCRA
Sent up a Roman Catholic to state capital (5)

(A RC + Ca{lifornia})<
4 EDIFIES
Teaches nonsense if ideas only partly recalled (7)

Hidden, rev in "nonsense if ideas"
5 DENSELY
Stupidly refuse to accept bottomless ego (7)

Deny around sel[f]
6 TOSS OUT
Suggest, or reject, flip of coin elsewhere (4,3)

DD (one in the sense of "I'm just tossing this out…") + toss(=coin flip) + out(=elsewhere)
7 CORNFLAKE
One of the limits of canteen: very small plate for breakfast cereal (9)

C or N (first or last letter of canteen) + flake. Flake is defined as a "small scale or layer", so is a synonym for plate when used in that sense.
8 OVERSIGHT
Supervision (or neglect) of deliveries, given stated location (9)

DD and over(=deliveries in cricket) + hom of site
14 TOILETTES
Parisian can work before I briefly return (9)

Toil + sette[r]<
15 CONTRANYM
Against hollow man and Tory cavorting? That’s self-contradictory (9)

Theme word – (C[o]n + man + tory)*
18 WEATHER
Become worn down, or endure topic of desultory conversation (7)

Triple def – weather in the sense of erosion and to weather something, meaning to endure it.
19 GARNISH
Add or take away new gaudy covering (7)

DD and garish around n{ew}. I'm not entirely sure of the "take away" meaning of garnish. There is a legal term for the attaching of a debt to something, which would involve taking away money, or it can also be a slang term meaning to extort money.
20 REACTOR
Nuclear device‘s designer about to be demoted (7)

Creator with the C moved down.
23 SEEDS
Removes or supplies kernels (5)

DD – seed can mean to remove the seeds from something or to add seeds (as in "seed the lawn").
24 ICING
Seeing all but not the top of the cake (5)

[Not]icing – all of seeing but the "not".

14 comments on “Independent 10,901 by Atrica”

  2. I too followed the same train of thought as Hovis, but apparently it can be spelt either way, and both parsings are plausible. The website only accepts CONTRONYM.

  3. I couldn’t find either spelling in Chambers. My O.D.E. only has CONTRONYM. I felt, when solving, that hollowing out a word meaning ‘against’ was, perhaps, a step too far, hence why I checked the spelling. It does seem odd to me to take CONTR from “contra” then ONYM from “synonym” but who am I to argue?

  4. Having hollowed out ‘against’ to get at, I struggled to get the key word at first but, once STICKS BY went in, I had the starting letter and went straight for the parsing suggested by Hovis @1.

    What an intriguing puzzle – I don’t think I’ve seen a theme based on contronyms before – indeed, I didn’t know they were a Thing. As solution after solution presented itself, I found myself in awe of both the setter’s creation and this wonderful language of ours that can produce so many delightful contradictions (or should that be controdictions?)

    GARNISH is most simply defined in the Cambridge English Dictionary: to take an amount from someone’s wages. (The example most often given is if, for example, child support or a debt is owed)

    Thanks Atrica and Neal H

  5. What a clever puzzle. Suzie Dent mentioned contronyms on Countdown last week, funnily enough. FAST, TWANGS, TOILETTES and ICING were my favourites.

    Thanks Atrica and Neal H

  6. I loved the theme and it was a real treat to have so many CONTRONYM(s) congregated together. I didn’t know GARNISH in the ‘take away’ sense although have come across the term”garnishee” without ever knowing what it meant.

    Some good non-thematic clues as well, of which the ‘Parisian can’ and ISOMORPH were my favourites.

    Thanks to Atrica and NealH

  7. Inquisitor 1703 was also based on contronyms. Kenmac’s blog contains a link to an interesting list of such words. As in to day’s blog, Ken’s blog noted the different spellings of CONTRAMYM and CONTRONYM. The wordplay in today’s crossword clearly leads to CONTRONYM

  8. Very clever indeed. Proper treats today with this and Brendan in the G.

    Couldn’t parse CORNFLAKE. Big DOH moment there.

    Thanks both.

  9. Thanks to all who commented and to NealH for the blog — much appreciated! I was not aware of the Inquisitor crossword with the same theme. I hope that enough time has passed that there was no sense of deja vu for solvers who attempted both. These puzzles are written some time before publication and one always wonders whether there will be an unintentional coincidence in cluing or theme.

  10. Thanks Antrica and NealH – this was highly enjoyable.

    I don’t do the Inquisitor, but there’s also a connection with last week’s Everyman*, which is more my level, that had me on the internet looking up contronyms… hence I was well primed for this.

    (*blogged yesterday, but I’ll say no more in case of spoilers)

  12. Thanks Neal and Atrica. I wrote at the top of my printout contranym? after solving cleave which rather gave the game away. Anyway thanks both.

  13. Thanks NealH for your comprehensive blog (though I agree with Hovis@1 re parsing of the key word) and PostMark for bringing this excellent crossword to my attention – thanks also Antrica, very nice idea (no danger of me being familiar with the Inquisitor version!) and well executed – ISOMORPH my favourite too.

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