Crossword Clue Word Quiz

You’re listening to A Way with Words. I’m Grant Barrett.

And I’m Martha Barnette. And joining us now is our quiz guy, Greg Pliska. Hi, Greg.

Hello, Martha. Howdy, Grant. What’s going on?

I was just thinking about things that you should know that you don’t.

Oh, there are a lot of those.

I’m, you know, Mr. Puzzle Guy, and I just learned that the Wall Street Journal has a cryptic puzzle and a Great Saturday puzzle, and I didn’t know this.

It’s been there for about a year, and I just didn’t know.

And so now you’re doing it every weekend?

Now I’m doing them. I’m doing them every Saturday, and they’re great.

Well, puzzle us. What do you got there, dude? What’s in your pocket?

Well, you know, since I’ve been looking at cryptic crosswords, I’ve decided we’d play around with a certain kind of cryptic crossword clue known as the double definition, which is where the clue is split into two halves as usual.

But instead of a wordplay half, there’s simply a second definition half.

In other words, there are two definitions, but only one answer.

Okay.

Here’s a classic example. The clue is trim a tree.

And the answer is spruce.

Oh, okay.

In one sense, spruce is an adjective synonymous with trim, meaning neat or tidy.

And in another sense, a spruce is simply a tree.

Nice.

Here’s your first one.

The answer is four letters.

And the clue is crazy flying mammals.

Bats.

Bats.

Oh, very good.

Exactly.

It means crazy and it’s kind of flying mammals.

See, Martha, that’s not so hard.

Here’s another one.

Fish struggle.

Is this like flounder?

How many letters?

Flounder is exactly it, yes.

It’s a kind of fish, and it’s a word meaning struggle.

Here’s one.

Seven letters.

Tightly packed small car.

Compact?

Compact.

Yes.

As an adjective, it means tightly packed.

As a noun, it means small car.

This one is seven letters also.

135 elected officials having sex.

Congress.

It’s actually a new website.

That’s just the politics page.

Yes.

Nice.

Here’s another one from the world of sports.

Hit a ball that the batter missed.

Strike.

Strike.

Oh, that’s nice.

That’s right.

Hit means to strike, and a ball that the batter missed is a strike.

That’s a good one.

Good one.

Opposite of itself.

And here’s one from my business.

Five letters.

Cuts off a musician’s ability.

Cuts off a musician’s ability, which is…

Chops.

Chops.

Very good.

Right there.

In at the finish.

By a nose.

I think it’s Grant.

I think it was.

Cuts off, meaning chops.

And then a musician’s ability are his or her chops.

Center of government assets.

This is how many letters?

Seven letters.

Seven letters.

Center of government assets.

So it’s not seats.

Capital is correct.

Capital is the center of government and another word for assets.

Good.

Here’s another one.

Inflexible end of a boat.

Stern.

Stern, exactly.

Stiff skiff.

Right.

It’s a different kind of puzzle.

Stern meaning inflexible, and the end of a boat is the stern.

That’s a tough one.

I’m going to give you one more.

Okay.

Just because I particularly like this one.

Okay.

Punctuation marking the end of a tract.

How many letters?

Five letters.

I was going to say end period, but.

Does this divide in the middle of a word?

No, it divides after marking.

Punctuation marking and the end of a tract.

Oh, oh, oh.

It could be like a colon.

Colon would be the answer.

It’s the end of the digestive tract.

Oh, the digestive tract.

And it’s also a punctuation marking.

Greg, that was really challenging.

We love that.

Thank you so much.

I’m happy to keep you on your toes mentally.

And you can keep us on our toes, too.

Call us 877-929-9673 if you want to talk about any aspect of language.

Or you can send those emails to words@waywordradio.org.

Thanks, Greg.

Thank you.