Solving time : 15:26, and I’m currently fourth on the leaderboard, so I think I was just a little off on the wavelength here. Though there’s one that I can’t figure out the wordplay for right now, thankfully it’s near the end of the list so hopefully it will come to me.
I suspect there’ll be some scorching times from those that pick up on the definitions, with a lot of long entries where the definition stands out in the clue, you could complete most of the puzzle that way. I had a few I needed the wordplay for, particularly 14 down, where I initially played the “let’s go by definition alone” game and put in CARILLION.
Away we go…
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | DELICATESSEN: ESSEN next to (CITADEL)* |
| 9 | WORST: hidden |
| 10 | REAR-LIGHT: EARL in RIGHT, and the estate is the setter’s favorite car |
| 11 | RELIABLE: ELI in RABBLE missing one B |
| 12 | INBRED: sounds like IN BREAD. Having lived in both Tasmania and North Carolina, I’m used to this having a more sinister meaning |
| 13 | PREACHER: P then CHE in REAR |
| 15 | KIDNEY: KID then YEN reversed, I think we’ve had this definition of KIDNEY recently |
| 17 | ENTOMB: MB(GP) after (NOTE)* |
| 18 | COVETING: COVERING with T for R |
| 20 | FINNAN: INN in FAN got this from wordplay, it’s a type of smoked haddock |
| 21 | PROSPERO: S in PROPER, 0 – the duke from “The Tempest” |
| 24 | CONTINENT: CONTE(story), NT(New Testament) surrounding IN |
| 25 |
|
| 26 | PERSISTENTLY: (STYLE,PINTER)* |
| Down | |
| 1 | DEWDROP: WED reversed, then DROP(shed) |
| 2 | LORD LIEUTENANT: LORD(noble), TENANT(lessee) surrounding LIEU(place) |
| 3 | C,OTT,A: another one from wordplay, a surplice |
| 4 | THRILLER: RILL(runner), in THE,R |
| 5 | SPAT: double def |
| 6 | EGLANTINE: EG, then ANT in LINE(cable, as in “drop me a line”) |
| 7 | AGGRANDISEMENT: anagram of DEIGN and GREAT MAN’S |
| 8 | STODGY: DG(Director General – old BBC boss) in S,TOY |
| 14 | CAMP,A,NILE |
| 16 | SOCRATES: I liked this double container clue – RAT in CE in SOS |
| 17 | EFFACE: all six letters are musical notes |
| 19 | G,HOST,L(oft)Y |
| 22 | SCONE: this was my last in and I was convinced I was going to be incorrect. I’d never heard of the Stone of Scone |
| 23 | MESS: double def |
My only unknown was COTTA, which was fortunately clear from the wordplay.
On KIDNEY, does anyone know the origin of its use in the sense of ‘kind’ or ‘temperament’? I suppose it’s no more odd than the use of ‘spleen’ or ‘heart’ in similar senses.
Is it just me, or have philosophers been unusually and unnecessarily abundant of late? Still, at least this was one I’d heard of. In general, if they’re not included in Monty Python’s “Philosopher’s Song” I’ve got no hope. Oh, and Hippocrates, who I’m sure I’ve encountered in some context or other.
Thanks to Londoniensis, as ever, for the literary reminiscences: ‘eglantine’ for me immediately conjured up ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ and Oberon’s instructions to Puck, referring to ‘sweet musk roses and with eglantine’, if I remember correctly.
Also got KIDNEY but had forgotten about the meaning of kind or type. Noah Webster was amusingly scornful in his first dictionary :
” 2. Sort; kind. [A ludicrous use of the word.]”
And has another interesting definition I’d never heard of:
“3. A cant term for a waiting servant.”
The 1913 edition is generous with quotations:
“There are in later times other decrees, made by popes of another kidney. Barrow.
Millions in the world of this man’s kidney. L’Estrange.
Your poets, spendthrifts, and other fools of that kidney, pretend, forsooth, to crack their jokes on prudence. Burns.
&hand_; This use of the word perhaps arose from the fact that the kidneys and the fat about them are an easy test of the condition of an animal as to fatness. “Think of that, — a man of my kidney; — . . . as subject to heat as butter.” Shak.
3. A waiter. [Old Cant] Tatler.”