Contests started: PI DAY (2, 3), TINDER (6), EN GARDE (2, 5), DELTA (5), IMDB (4), OLIVIA (6), MULTIVERSE (10), WORDLE (6), ESPERANTO (9), ANY CLUE WITH TWO DEFINITIONS, TWO ANSWERS, AND A SHARED WORDPLAY (?) (?), SCARLET (7), BREAKING BAD (8, 3), DR. NO (2. 2), INTERROBANG (11), SPRAY (5), SCRABBLE (8), ANY CLUE THAT USES A MATHEMATICAL SEQUENCE OTHER THAN EVENS/ODDS TO INDEX (?), WES CRAVEN (3, 6), SPRING (6), FINALE (6), CREAM CHEESE (5, 6), TICONDEROGA (11), BROADWAY (8), HADES (5), THANOS (6), ANY URL (?), UNICODE (7), CANDELABRA (10), TARGET (6), ANY TRIPLE-OR-MORE DEFINITION CLUE (?), SANDSTORM (9), AGENDA (6), ANY CLUE THAT USES SAT-STYLE ANALOGIES AS WORDPLAY (?)
Contests won: INCOGNITO (9), SISYPHUS (8), TARTAN (6), ANY PVZ PLANT (?), HAPAX LEGOMENON (5, 9), SWEPT AWAY (5, 4), CONGLOMERATE (12), BLACK SWAN (5, 4), FORTIFY (7), NEPAL (5), PRIMER (6), COTILLION (9), ANY CLUE WHICH INCORPORATES THE NUMBER 100, 101, OR 102 (?), COPPER (6), THIRTY (6), PRESS F (5, 1), BREAKING BAD (8, 3), INTERROBANG (11), ANY CLUE RESOLVING TO A PAST FREEFORM PROMPT (?), ANY CLUE BUT THE WHOLE THING HAS TO BE IN THE FORM OF A POEM - IT DOESN'T HAVE TO RHYME BUT IT SHOULD BE RECOGNIZABLE AS A POETIC TRADITION (ANY), ANY CLUE IN THE STYLE OF SONG LYRICS TO “WE DIDN’T START THE FIRE”, WHERE EACH ITEM REFERENCES A 21ST CENTURY EVENT. EXTRA CREDIT FOR RHYME SCHEME (?), EARLY (5), FORWARD (7), RABBIT (6), EXPONENT (8), ANY CLUE THAT LOOKS LIKE AN &LIT BUT ISN'T ONE (?), 11780 (5), ABOUT-FACE (5-4)
| Clue ID | Contest | Clue | Explanation (hover) | Submitted By | Likes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8932 | ANY CLUE BUT THE WHOLE THING HAS TO BE IN THE FORM OF A POEM - IT DOESN'T HAVE TO RHYME BUT IT SHOULD BE RECOGNIZABLE AS A POETIC TRADITION (ANY) | "Against splitting: no breaking up, lossless erelong." // The cryptic setter owns a bit of doubt before // To a specific female in a song. /// The oft-unwritten silence clangour boasts, Along // with quietness as indicated in a score. // "Against splitting: no breaking up, lossless erelong." /// Four seasons' time evaporates from thirst or long; // A languid, energetic team's beginning four // To a specific female in a song. /// An ugly and decrepit woman leaves a throng // To overshadow neuroinformatics' core. // "Against splitting: no breaking up, lossless erelong." /// A woman chaste to whom the clothes of air belong, // The head of Aristophanes revolving or, // To a specific female in a song /// A paper pact to harbor secrets reddens wrong // A note of gratitude and debt, but me? Ignore. // "Against splitting: no breaking up, lossless erelong," // To a specific female in a song. (5, 5, 4, 3, 2, 5, 5, 3, 3, 4, 5, 5, 3, 6, 3, 6, 3) | This is a villanelle by the way. I'm just going to link a google doc with the explanation (and poem with nice line breaks) https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YpLNKP9pLKuNDAovtJG7tHmiI0TTYNQBSxuUv27nsNY/edit |
theduckmedic | 14 |
| 8399 | PRESS F (5, 1) | Express forlorn heart! (5, 1) | _PRESS F_ &lit You press f to grieve or show that you're sad |
theduckmedic | 5 |
| 8243 | PRIMER (6) | Appetizer is bottomless cut of beef without tail (6) | PRIME R(-ib) | theduckmedic | 4 |
| 8288 | COPPER (6) | Brass constituent! (6) | Brass as in the authorities (copper = police) or copper is in the alloy brass |
theduckmedic | 4 |
| 8385 | THIRTY (6) | Horny, wanting for a bit of something XXX (6) | THIR(-s)TY | theduckmedic | 4 |
| 9053 | EARLY (5) | Not modern, like a British aristocrat? (5) | punny ddef. not modern = early like a British aristocrat = EARL-Y |
theduckmedic | 4 |
| 9752 | ANY CLUE THAT LOOKS LIKE AN &LIT BUT ISN'T ONE (?) | Badly fail around player! (9) | F(ACTOR)IAL* def: ! |
theduckmedic | 4 |
| 7430 | SISYPHUS (8) | Sneaky leader is bound to push rocks after end of treachery (8) | S_ + IS + _Y + PHUS* &lit | theduckmedic | 3 |
| 8149 | NEPAL (5) | Turbulent plane brings you to Asian country (5) | NEPAL* | theduckmedic | 3 |
| 8262 | COTILLION (9) | Number with a dancing couple! (9) | OCTILLION with OC swapped &lit (cotillion is a couples' dance) |
theduckmedic | 3 |
| 8264 | ANY CLUE WHICH INCORPORATES THE NUMBER 100, 101, OR 102 (?) | No no. I love to read aloud (3) | def = Nobelium number, or 102 I = 1, love = 0, "to" = 2 |
theduckmedic | 3 |
| 8731 | A CLUE THAT MUST SOLVE TO BOTH BENGALS AND RAMS, DEPENDING ON HOW WORDPLAY IS PARSED (7) AND (4) | Tonight's winning team of units taking back a good quarter (7 or maybe 4)) | Tonight's winning team = Bengals or Rams ~~~~~~~ units = bels good = g quarter = N as in north thus BE(N+G+A<)LS ~~~~~~~~~~` units = grams quarter of "good" is "g" grams, taking back "g", is rams |
theduckmedic | 3 |
| 9532 | EXPONENT (8) | a shortened ordinal at the end of "e to an unknown power" ! (8) | E + X + P + ONE + NT(-h) &lit credit to rpl for first bit |
theduckmedic | 3 |
| 9800 | CLUE THAT'S ENTIRELY IN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE (ANSWER, DEFINITION, AND CRYPTIC READING) | Estas amuze serĉi mislokitan ĉapelon (5) | translation: "It's fun to look for a misplaced hat" definition: "it's funny" (fun and funny are the same word) serĉi, when the hat is moved, becomes the answer "ŝerci", meaning joke |
theduckmedic | 3 |
| 9806 | CLUE THAT'S ENTIRELY IN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE (ANSWER, DEFINITION, AND CRYPTIC READING) | Expressway “aisleway eBay” outweigh (8) | Translated from Pig Latin: Express "I'll be" out ddef Express "I'll be" = wonder Out = under (e.g. unconscious) either is UNDERWAY in Pig Latin for fun all words involved also valid in English |
theduckmedic | 3 |
| 9842 | 11780 (5) | Slim minority obligated imaginary number to be fabricated on a calculator! (5) | slim minority of OBLIGATED = OBLI imaginary number = I OBLII created using calculator-spelling is 11780 &lit |
theduckmedic | 3 |
| 12204 | HEART (5) | "Deer" is a homophone of something that indicates "love" (5) | "hart" lol | theduckmedic | 3 |
| 12780 | ABOUT-FACE (5-4) | Retreat and reside? (5-4) | ABOUT (re) + FACE (side) | theduckmedic | 3 |
| 7429 | TARTAN (6) | A ship's sailor bronzed by the sun (6) | TAR + TAN | theduckmedic | 2 |
| 7433 | IDEAL (5) | I give cards to every other member in the ring, e.g. (5) | I + DEAL https://mathworld.wolfram.com/Ideal.html | theduckmedic | 2 |
| 7460 | HAPAX LEGOMENON (5, 9) | Lol, gaming convention toy figures going to be appearing only once (5, 9) | HA + PAX + LEGO MEN + ON | theduckmedic | 2 |
| 8284 | PIRATE (6) | Roman governor switching sides to become criminal (6) | PILATE with L swapped for R | theduckmedic | 2 |
| 8516 | BREAKING BAD (8, 3) | Having a meal without referring to Gilligan's TV show (8, 3) | BREAKING B(-re)AD (Breaking Bad is created by showrunner Vince Gilligan) |
theduckmedic | 2 |
| 8733 | (0) | No-one is taking off clothes (0) | IS minus the first and last letters | theduckmedic | 2 |
| 8825 | ANY CLUE RESOLVING TO A PAST FREEFORM PROMPT (?) | Every submission on this site is made of batsh*t lunacy energy (3 4) | (ANY CLU)* + E = Every submission on this site https://cryptics.jackbrounstein.com/contest/1274-any-clue |
theduckmedic | 2 |
| 9531 | MANTISSA (8) | Part of double-precision ray envelops satellite (8) | ray = manta satellite = ISS MANT(ISS)A def: part of double-precision |
theduckmedic | 2 |
| 10708 | MOOCH (5) | Beg for an embarrassingly short period of time (5) | ddef "Mooch" being the unit of time lasting 11 days representing the length of the brief tenure of Trump's White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci |
theduckmedic | 2 |
| 12124 | NATICK (6) | C. Wyeth located in (gross) the town at the eighth mile of the Boston Marathon (6) | N. + AT + ICK | theduckmedic | 2 |
| 7392 | PORTAL (6) | Removing bismuth from an electron density pattern creates a trans-dimensional wormhole (6) | P-OR(-bi)TAL | theduckmedic | 1 |
| 7401 | TWO-BIT (3-3) | 10.25¢ (3-3) | 1 and 0 are two bits, .25¢ is also 2 bits. | theduckmedic | 1 |
| 7424 | INCOGNITO (9) | Avoiding concerning, problematic recognition! (9) | (-re)COGNITION* | theduckmedic | 1 |
| 7435 | TOKYO (5) | City to the west of a former Japanese capital (5) | TO + KYO_ ;) | theduckmedic | 1 |
| 7437 | DUCK KONUNDRUM (4, 9) | Complicated series of instructions: dodge a strong punch and the front end of nunchuck, and strike (4, 9) | DUCK + KO + NUNchuck + DRUM at least the partial is not indirect |
theduckmedic | 1 |
| 7449 | ANY PVZ PLANT (?) | Victory condition, Mr. Musk, is a wax gourd (6, 5) | WIN + TERM + ELON | theduckmedic | 1 |
| 7471 | SWEPT AWAY (5, 4) | Moved as if by a flood, turning, twisting in church benches (5, 4) | (YAW + AT + PEWS)< | theduckmedic | 1 |
| 7472 | SWEPT AWAY (5, 4) | Stagger around, cried, "One is annihilated" (5, 4) | S(WEPT A)WAY | theduckmedic | 1 |
| 7492 | ACE (3) | A minor swell (3) | ddef. The A minor chord is ACE, "that juice bar sure is ace. Flameo, hotman!" | theduckmedic | 1 |
| 7575 | RECURSION (9) | Primarily, the answer to this cryptic is one, containing non-terminating solution! (9) | R_ + (E(CURe)SION)* & lit where "the answer to this" is "RECURSION" |
theduckmedic | 1 |
| 7813 | CONTRACT (8) | Develop understanding (8) | double def. | theduckmedic | 1 |
| 7873 | FAFF (4) | Really really loud about a waste of time (4) | Fortississimo (FFF) around A | theduckmedic | 1 |
| 7874 | DORK (4) | Either component of a Call of Duty ratio for a gamer, maybe (4) | ddef "D or K" | theduckmedic | 1 |
| 7876 | CONGLOMERATE (12) | African country gains fifty, emirate loses one: leader moves to form consortium (12) | CONG(L)O + M(-i)(E)RATE | theduckmedic | 1 |
| 8270 | ANY CLUE WHOSE WORDPLAY IS REVERSE LETTER BANK (?) | Pancake mix made of everything except Java-glazed pharynx of flatworm (8) | {JAVGLZDPHRYNXOFT*W*RM}^C = {BCIKQSU} which is letter bank for Bisquick |
theduckmedic | 1 |
| 8397 | RAGTIME (7) | Migrate haphazardly to syncopated music (7) | MIGRATE* | theduckmedic | 1 |
| 8517 | BREAKING BAD (8, 3) | Cooking sourdough, moving about, and turning evil (8, 3) | BAKING BREAD with the RE moved around | theduckmedic | 1 |
| 8619 | TWEED (5) | Gween fabwic (5) | Gween = Treed but with the same rhotacism. (; |
theduckmedic | 1 |
| 8786 | INTERROBANG (11) | In the ends of text, use for part-probe, part-anger‽ (11) | IN + texT usE foR + _ROB_ + ANG_ &lit cheekily using ‽ instead of ! just for fun |
theduckmedic | 1 |
| 8946 | ANY CLUE IN THE STYLE OF SONG LYRICS TO “WE DIDN’T START THE FIRE”, WHERE EACH ITEM REFERENCES A 21ST CENTURY EVENT. EXTRA CREDIT FOR RHYME SCHEME (?) | 🎵 Facebook, toxic pipes, containing a bit of hype, robot dogs and trackers: a Black Mirror tale 🎵 (9) | META + L(H_)EAD Metalhead is an episode of Black Mirror with robot dogs and intravenous trackers. |
theduckmedic | 1 |
| 9052 | EARLY (5) | The beginning of the last 10/12 of each 12-month period (5) | The beginning of the last 10/12 of each 12-month period def = "The beginning of" as in "early June" (-y)EARLY, the last 5/6 of "each 12-month period" = YEARLY |
theduckmedic | 1 |
| 9102 | FORWARD (7) | Brazen dwarf or rogue (7) | Def = Brazen FORWARD* |
theduckmedic | 1 |
| 9152 | RABBIT (6) | Religious man, by gossip, is a prolific breeder (6) | RABBI + T as in "spill the T" | theduckmedic | 1 |
| 9647 | ABANDON (7) | Forsake the heart of Hades turning to the end of sin in the bottomless pit of the underworld (7) | soul of Hades = D end of sin = N the bottomless pit of the underworld = Abaddon ABA(d->N)DON def = Forsake |
theduckmedic | 1 |
| 9753 | ANY CLUE THAT LOOKS LIKE AN &LIT BUT ISN'T ONE (?) | Sand rotating around bottle and pool ball (&lit) (3, 9, 2) | SAND rotated = ANDS around bottle = LITER + pool = ALLY ball = O def: (&lit) ans: AND LITERALLY SO |
theduckmedic | 1 |
| 10588 | ANY CLUE WHERE A PUNCTUATION MARK IS INCLUDED IN THE PARSE | In the Bible, break apart the parse involving "@" unorthodoxly (10) | SEPAR(AT)ETH* def = In the Bible, break apart |
theduckmedic | 1 |
| 7899 | BLACK SWAN (5, 4) | Statistical rarity—squib lacks wand heartstring (5, 4) | _b lack s_ | theduckmedic | 0 |
| 7900 | FORTIFY (7) | Hold up if breaking 40 (7) | FORT(IF)Y | theduckmedic | 0 |
| 8157 | CHESHIRE (8) | Cheers, dancing around, salutation for the birthday boy! (8) | CHEERS* around HI | theduckmedic | 0 |
| 8161 | ASPIRE (6) | The babe that suckles Cleopatra's breast / Precedes a rage to long for, as a quest (6) | ASP + IRE Idk, just felt Shakespearean today. Might delete later (Cleopatra describes the asp she uses to kill herself as a baby sucking the life out of her) |
theduckmedic | 0 |
| 8175 | MULTIVERSE (10) | Pack animal carrying vanadium in layers to parallel worlds (10) | MU(TI(V)ERS)LE | theduckmedic | 0 |
| 8542 | PITY (4) | Grieve for spirituality without energy (4) | PI(-e)TY | theduckmedic | 0 |
| 8790 | ANY GEOGRAPHICAL PLACE (?) | One place in Norway (1) | One = A place in Norway = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%85,_Meldal |
theduckmedic | 0 |
| 8793 | ANY GEOGRAPHICAL PLACE (?) | Is a district attorney able to place? (6) | CAN A DA? | theduckmedic | 0 |
| 8795 | ANY GEOGRAPHICAL PLACE (?) | Japan: a map hides a nation (6) | _PAN A MA_ | theduckmedic | 0 |
| 8823 | EUNICE (6) | European storm European European city (6) | EU + NICE (, France) lol |
theduckmedic | 0 |
| 9311 | BUFFET (6) | Cafeteria batter (6) | DDEF | theduckmedic | 0 |
| 10707 | XENIAL (6) | Hospitable and cheerful, but rated considerably more adult-themed (6) | replace the "G" rating with an "X" in "GENIAL" | theduckmedic | 0 |