Guardian Quiptic 1,283/Carpathian

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A fine Quiptic from Carpathian this morning. She’s good at this, as well as at being Vigo in the Independent when she wants to be more challenging.

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 Setter left offensive musical
MELODIOUS
A charade of ME, for the ‘setter’, L and ODIOUS.

6 Embrace European giant
HUGE
A charade of HUG and E.

8 Hot ether limit is fine
HAIRLINE
A charade of H, AIR and LINE. Think fractures.

9 Move clumsily having taken drug for a spinal region
LUMBAR
Carpathian is inviting you to replace the drug, E, in LUMBER with A.

10 Climb like US currency
ASCENT
A charade of AS and CENT.

11 Remarkable urinals distributed around gents initially
SINGULAR
An insertion of G for the initial letter of ‘gents’ in (URINALS)* The insertion indicator is ‘around’ and the anagrind is ‘distributed’.

12 Start to cover artificial fabric in marker
CRAYON
A charade of C for the first letter of ‘cover’ and RAYON.

15 Stretch out scandal involving owner of X?
ELONGATE
We’ve had the scandal of WATERGATE in 1972 and a huge number of -GATES since. So if, heaven forfend, Mr Musk were to be involved in one …

16 Direct view across revolutionary paintings
STRAIGHT
An insertion of ART reversed in SIGHT. The insertion indicator is ‘across’ and the reversal indicator is ‘revolutionary’.

19 Wearing a wig is tough
RUGGED
A dd. RUG is another word for wig, so if you were bewigged, then you could be whimsically described as ‘rugged’.

21 Head of church to dawdle around section in monastery
CLOISTER
A charade of C for the initial letter of ‘church’ and S inserted into LOITER. The insertion indicator is ‘around’.

22 Extend feast
SPREAD
A dd.

24 Meat father gives character from Greece
LAMBDA
A charade of LAMB and DA.

25 One portion is minute showing impracticality
IDEALISM
A charade of I, DEAL, IS and M. We need to take ‘portion’ as a verb to make the correspondence with DEAL work.

26 Pure and simple pool
MERE
A dd. Today’s language snippet for the word geeks out there is that MERE is one of the very few adjectives in English that can only be used attributively – in other words, before the noun. It can’t be used predicatively, after a linking verb. So you can say ‘It was a deep scratch’ or ‘The scratch was deep’. You can say ‘It was a mere scratch’, but you can’t say ‘The scratch was mere’. Other examples of adjectives in this category are ‘main’ and ‘utter’. ‘The main road’, for sure; but ‘The road is main’ doesn’t work. ‘Pierre is talking utter bollocks’ is fine, and often apposite; but you aren’t allowed to say ‘His bollocks was utter’.

27 Revolting alien wit I prepare to ambush
LIE IN WAIT
(ALIEN WIT I)* with ‘revolting’ as the anagrind.

Down

1 Signifies a way to an end
MEANS
A dd.

2 Criminal nearly admitting constant theft
LARCENY
An insertion of C for the mathematical ‘constant’ in (NEARLY)* The insertion indicator is ‘admitting’ and the anagrind is ‘criminal’.

3 Stray diamonds found by fissure
DRIFT
A charade of D and RIFT.

4 Manage to put poem in Old English
OVERSEE
An insertion of VERSE in OE. The insertion indicator is ‘to put … in’

5 Radiance of old prunes misrepresented
SPLENDOUR
(OLD PRUNES)* with ‘misrepresented’ as the anagrind.

6 Bad actor rejected food somewhere in Germany
HAMBURG
A charade of HAM and GRUB reversed.

7 Eager aunt breaking promise
GUARANTEE
(EAGER AUNT)* with ‘breaking’ as the anagrind.

13 Fight back as consumer holds dog upside down
RETALIATE
An insertion of TAIL in EATER, all reversed. The insertion indicator is ‘upside down’, since it’s a down clue.

14 Nearly behind revolting lines at the end of the day
NIGHTFALL
A charade of NIGH, AFT reversed and LL.

17 In the morning I get fit and friendly
AMIABLE
A charade of AM, I and ABLE.

18 Dish boxed up by souvenir retailer
TERRINE
Hidden reversed in souvENIR RETailer.

20 Animal rebuilt log lair
GORILLA
(LOG LAIR)* with ‘rebuilt’ as the anagrind.

22 Rigid back
STERN
A dd.

23 Strength shown by idiot alien
ASSET
A charade of ASS and ET.

Many thanks to Carpathian for this week’s Quiptic.

28 comments on “Guardian Quiptic 1,283/Carpathian”

  1. Another enjoyable challenge with nice bits of humour throughout. A bit of a debate on the G thread about LUMBAR, but it seem perfectly OK to me. I liked MELODIOUS, CLOISTER, IDEALISM and GUARANTEE. Thanks for the snippet about MERE and your bollocks. Made me chuckle 🙂.

    Ta Carpathian & Pierre

  2. I thought this was great: nice clear clues with some quirky humour. I like Carpathian’s Quick Crosswords too, as she’s easy to blog – the explanations are straightforward.

    I entered LUMBER at first, mentally noting that it could be LUMBAR, to have LUMBAR confirmed when I got to the downs and found the crosser, and as I’m not blogging this one, wasn’t being analytical about the clue. RUGGED amused me, although I needed crossers to get it. I think we’ve seen something similar for ELONGATE before, which is why I wrote it in.

    Thank you to Carpathian and Pierre.

  4. Hmm, ‘having taken drug’ means having ingested it. How do you convert that to mean ‘having taken’ it away?

  5. Personally I wouldn’t give that to a beginner – lots of stuff that experienced crossworders know the synonyms for and what the clues are trying to tell them to do. I struggled through parts of it myself – albeit some due to my own stupidity (couldn’t get OVERSEE even though I had already tried to shove verse in) – taking about 50% longer than the last two weeks.

    I read the LUMBAR clue very carefully and still managed to put the wrong word in. So I’m not convinced by the instructions within the clue, but as it crosses with GUARANTEE it doesn’t matter.

    Anyway all done – some good clues in there but reached the point where I found it to be a bit of a grind thus taking the enjoyment away.

  6. Lovely quiptic: clear clues, nice surfaces, humour.
    I liked LAMBDA, STRAIGHT, RUGGED, SINGULAR, IDEALISM.
    Loved the blurb on MERE – something to think about.
    Thanks Carpathian and Pierre.

  7. HG @5 – my thoughts too. A fine puzzle but my experience was that it was straying towards the chewier end of what’s considered Quiptic.

    Also struggled in places and have to say that most of what I struggled with was needless, as the clueing was perfectly good: OVERSEE was an identical experience for me, I was 95% there but just couldn’t get my brain to make it fit. Kicked myself on revealing it.

  10. A top puzzle — no obscurities, no specific knowledge or UK geography required, and plenty of smiles, just as the quiptic should be. It’s rare that my NHO list and my “Huh?” list are both zero.

    Thanks Carpathian & Pierre.

  12. Slightly difficult than last week,but enjoyable nonetheless.Thanks Pierre and Carpathian.

  13. Enjoyed this, although I had to come here for the parsing of RETALIATE and NIGHTFALL. Chuckled at ELONGATE.

    Thanks to Carpathian and Pierre, especially for the utter bollocks about mere 🙂

  14. Another here who spent a good while pondering whether LUMBER or LUMBAR was intended, plunked in the wrong one, and was set straight by GUARANTEE. That clue type (“take a word meaning X, replace this letter with that one, arrive at a word meaning Y”) seems to result in ambiguous clues far more often than almost any other type. Setters and editors have all learned that in homophone clues, the homophone indicator should never go in the middle, but that lesson hasn’t been taken in as regards the replacement indicator.

    I queried the definition “impracticality” for IDEALISM–one can certainly have the latter without the former, and vice versa–but the dictionary does support it, just about.

  16. I’m another who wrote LUMBER. I couldn’t see how to make LUMBAR work, but KVa @8 shows the way. I also wondered about PORTION = DEAL in 25ac, but I thought there was probably a way to make it work. Pierre is right that considering them as verbs does the trick.

  17. This went in smoothly for me. (I would say I’m an “advanced beginner”, so level of difficulty felt about right.)
    HAIRLINE took the longest to click.

  18. I’m another who dithered over Lumbar and Lumber, before plumping for the correct one. Ye can’t lose ‘em all!
    A fun quiptic, but then, with Carpathian, I would expect no less. Many thanks.
    Thanks also to Pierre for yet another classy blog, especially the info on mere, bollocks, et al…

  19. Very much what other people have said, particularly relating to 9ac. And we thought this was a bit on the tricky side for a Quiptic. Nevertheless, thanks, Carpathian and Pierre.

  20. Thanks to Carpathian for a fun solve!
    Thanks to Pierre for the language snippet! I love that sort of thing so please feel free to include as many as you like.

  21. Was perfectly okay with LUMBAR, but I do understand how it might have been confusing. Thank you Carpathian and Pierre!

    How is HAM a charade for bad actor?

  22. exp16@21 from chambers: “ham2 noun, colloq 1 theat a a bad actor, especially one who overacts or exaggerates; b inexpert or clumsy acting. Also as adj • a ham actor.”

    I’m more familiar with it as a verb i.e. an actor hamming it up, but it works as a noun too.

  23. I didn’t do well with this at all, had to reveal 11 of them, and 3 of the ones I did get I got without really understanding and had to come here for the explanation.

    Thanks both.

  27. 13 Fight back as consumer holds dog upside down
    RETALIATE
    An insertion of TAIL in EATER, all reversed. The insertion indicator is ‘upside down’, since it’s a down clue.

    Isn’t ‘holds’ the insertion indicator and ‘upside down’ the reversal indicator?

    (Just trying to understand clues better.)

  28. @Plums Think of Diamonds as in the suit, so Hearts and Diamonds would be H and D.

    As an eternal beginner, this confused me too until doing an unrelated crossword today.

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