Thank you to Mudd. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1. Bargain, your secret (8)
STEALTHY : STEAL(a bargain/something bought or offered for sale at lower than the usual or expected cost) + THY(archaic form of “your”).
5. Exact time for parting kiss (4,2)
SPOT ON : T(abbrev. for “time”) contained in(for parting) SPOON(to behave amorously, including kissing).
9. Tremendous thrashing (8)
WHOPPING : Double defn: 1st: …/massive; and 2nd: …/a severe beating.
10. Humourless drivel, domestic headache? (3-3)
DRY-ROT : DRY(dull and uninteresting/humourless) + ROT(nonsense/drivel).
Defn: … because it is a problem affecting your home/house.
12. Filthy skirt concealed by coat in grey (5)
GRIMY : RIM(an edge or border/skirt) contained in(concealed by) 1st and last letters of(coat in) “grey”.
13. Odious earthborn bum (9)
ABHORRENT : Anagram of(… bum) EARTHBORN.
14. Not well, badly (6)
POORLY : Double defn: 1st: …/in poor health; and 2nd: …/in an unsatisfactory manner.
16. Appalling stewed lamb, say (7)
ABYSMAL : Anagram of(stewed) LAMB, SAY.
19. Meadow beyond river (7)
PASTURE : PAST(on the further side of/beyond, as in “he went past my house”) + URE(river in North Yorkshire, England).
21. Rub tongue (6)
POLISH : Double defn: 1st: To … apply, say, polish to a surface with a back and forth motion); and 2nd: …/language of Poland.
23. Work schematic for inquisition (9)
CATECHISM : Anagram of(Work) SCHEMATIC.
Defn: Rigorous questioning, as in a test or interview.
25. Total bluff (5)
SHEER : Double defn: 1st: …/complete, as in “total ignorance”), and 2nd: …/perpendicular, or nearly perpendicular, like a cliff face.
26. Side arming revolutionary (6)
MARGIN : Anagram of(… revolutionary) ARMING.
27. Twin daughters into sport, out of control (8)
SKIDDING : DD(twice/twin abbrev. for “daughter”) contained in(into) SKIIING(a snow sport).
28. US city ship prepared for maiden voyage? (6)
NEWARK : [NEW ARK](how one might call a ship, an ark in this case, that is setting out on its maiden voyage).
Defn: … in New Jersey, USA.
29. At Christmas, say, hospital department gross (8)
INDECENT : [IN DEC(abbrev. for December)](at the time of, say/eg. Christmas) + ENT(abbrev. for the Ear, Nose and Throat Department in a hospital).
Down
1. Waste time after work on torn clothes, say? (6)
SEWAGE : AGE(a distinct period of time) placed below(after, in a down clue) SEW(to work on/mend, say/eg. torn clothes).
2. Sozzled economist waving hand and kissing face, for example (9)
EMOTICONS : Anagram of(Sozzled) ECONOMIST.
3. Rude item in lady’s handbag? (5)
LIPPY : Double defn: 1st: …/insolent; and 2nd: Short for, in this case, a lipstick, perhaps/? an item in a lady’s handbag.
4. Going without touring a country (7)
HUNGARY : HUNGRY(going without/not having had) containing(touring) A.
6. Elevated creation in play or funny sketch, perhaps (9)
PORTRAYAL : Reversal of(Elevated, in a down clue) ART(a creative work) contained in(in) anagram of(… funny) PLAY OR.
Defn: A depiction of someone or something, in this case/perhaps, a sketch/a rough or unfinished drawing or painting.
7. Short letter sending hugs (5)
TERSE : Hidden in(… hugs) “letter sending”.
Defn: …/uncivil.
8. Never forget it (3,2,3)
NOT AT ALL : Double defn: 1st: …/definitely not; and 2nd: Like “Forget it”, a response to “Thank you”.
11. Stop misery for the audience? (4)
WHOA : Homophone of(… for the audience) “woe”(misery/sorrow).
Defn: A command to a horse to stop, or a call to urge a person to stop.
15. Whipped up, hurricane hotter (9)
RAUNCHIER : Anagram of(Whipped up) HURRICANE.
Defn: More explicit, sexually/….
17. Give wrong meaning for ‘feminised’, embarrassingly (9)
MISDEFINE : Anagram of(…, embarrassingly) FEMINISED.
18. First seen of spin bowler, is he out of this world? (8)
SPACEMAN : 1st letter of(First) “seen” + PACEMAN(a fast bowler, one who uses sheer velocity – on the other hand, a spin bowler uses a rotation of the ball).
Defn: One who goes into outer space, or out of this world, literally.
20. Villainous rogue doffing cap (4)
EVIL : “devil”(one who behaves badly, but is likeable/a rogue) minus its 1st letter(doffing cap, in a down clue).
21. Squash parents, for example, under shoe (7)
PUMPKIN : KIN(relatives, parents for example) placed below(under, in a down clue) PUMP(a type of shoe, variously, a sports shoe or a shoe for dancing or a court shoe).
22. Shock: low grade, certainly (6)
FRIGHT : F(abbrev. for a low grade/a failing grade) + RIGHT!(like “certainly!”, an expression of approval or agreement).
24. Floor is away from this line (5)
THROW : “is” deleted from(away from) “this” + ROW(a series of similar things arranged in a more or less straight line).
Defn: …/to confuse.
25. Carex, in standardised genus (5)
SEDGE : Hidden in(in) “standardised genus”.
Defn: …, one of a large genus of grass-like plants.
I thought SPOON only referred to ‘cuddle’ not ‘kiss’ and EMOTICONS referred to symbols such as ‘:)’, as opposed to ‘emojis’ which are what is needed here. Live and learn (unless Mudd is wrong).
Thanks Mudd and scchua
5ac: I can find spoon defined as “to kiss and cuddle” indicated as old-fashioned slang in Collins 2023 p 1917 and ODE 2010 p 1725. I will let readers of this comment decide for themselves whether this is near enough. I could not find “kiss” on its own.
2dn: Collins 2023 and Chambers 2016 both have emoticon and emoji defined with the distinction indicated by Hovis@1. ODE 2010 has emoticon but not emoji. I suspect that the advance of technology means that language here may be changing rapidly and that emoticon may be well on its way to becoming a standard catch-all term for both meanings.
I worry that younger solvers will be put off crosswords by the somewhat archaic language employed by setters. “Spoon” whether it means kiss, cuddle or both is very PG Wodehouse and I think that “emoticon” has now been almost universally superseded by “emoji”. But an enjoyable puzzle from a reliably enjoyable setter
Witty and straightforward with only a couple in the NW and SE corners needing some time
It was a puzzle of great anagrams: CATECHISM, ABHORRENT, RAUNCHIER and EMOTICONS were brilliant and the others pretty good too. I also liked NOT AT ALL, SKIDDING and TERSE
I did not manage to parse SPOT ON for reasons given above, and thought WHOPPING could have been any of a few words even with a couple of crossers in place. Agree with the blog’s comment on SPACEMAN
Thanks Mudd and Scchua
Whopping, smashing, striking, spanking … all roughly thereabouts. There’ll no doubt be others …
Comment #6
We found this a struggle, despite plenty of solvable anagrams, with a not very user-friendly grid having only two links between left and right sides. The NW corner took us ages and some help to complete.
Thanks, though, to Mudd and scchua.
Thanks Mudd for a great set of clues. I thought this was a bit heavy on anagrams & double definitions but otherwise felt this was an excellent crossword. Favourites included DRY-ROT, ABYSMAL, PASTURE, POLISH, SKIDDING, & HUNGARY, my LOI. Thanks scchua for the blog.
I find it a pity when words with distinct meanings lose their differences, and also when new words are invented where old ones are perfectly adequate. Who needs “deplane” and “detrain” when we have the perfectly good “disembark”. Doubtless we shall be asked to “deship” soon.
With “emoticon” and “emoji” the similarity is only superficial. The former is a 1980s coinage from English, with the “icon” part referring to characters combining to make an image. “emoji” is a purely Japanese term from the 1990s, “e” + “moji” meaning “picture letter”. The apparent overlap with the “emo(tion)” part is purely coincidental.
thanks to Mudd and to scchua for clearing everything up.
JofT@9:
Thanks for the explanation of Emoji. I have only ever seen it written in Japanese with katakana for “Emo”, implying emotion. But I looked it up and you are correct: there is kanji for the whole word that basically mean picture-letters. The things I learn from this blog!
On your other topic, the less said about
“deplane” the better.
Admin and others: sorry for straying a bit off topic
Very late to comment and sorry if I have misunderstood the blog, but the “s” in SPACEMAN must be the first letter of “spin” and the “Paceman” just a bowler.
Peter @11: Yes I agree with you on that parsing. I had not noticed that the blog actually says something slightly different.
Beak #3, I agree that words like SPOON are old-fashioned, but the solution is for young people to spend some time reading books, and not only the latest fiction. Despite my age (71) SPOON was old-fashioned, and most likely obsolete when I was young but I came across the word when reading and soon learned its meaning. I find it’s the modern words I don’t get, though I did get EMOTICON.