Two annotations elude me.
ACROSS
1 - Thinly break down in cunning surroundings (8) - S{PARSE}LY
5 - Writer, with heart problem, not in a state (6) - PEN{ANG(-in a)}
9 - A female and I hang out with a neighbouring countryman (7) - A{F}{GHAN*}{I}
10 - Walks ostentatiously in states where deposit is found (7) - S{ASH}AYS
11 - Party committee’s hastily built in wretchedly poor environment (9) - POLITBURO*
12 - Woman’s first advantage with golf club (5) - {W}EDGE
13 - Standard refusal to foreign postal service (4) - {NO}{RM}
14 - The kind of provisions a consumer will want to buy (4-5) - BEST-GRADE [CD]
17 - Describing the classification of apex committees (4-5) - HIGH-LEVEL [CD]
19 - Net the setter and be quiet (4) - ME{SH}
23 - Trusts the man’s accepted work (5) - H{OP}ES
24 - Eyes pacts for disposal of trays in the printer’s shop (9) - TYPECASES*
25 - It might be plucked by Luke, Lee, any other (7) - UKELELE*
26 - Regret about the withdrawal of night train (7) - R{(~night)ETIN<-}UE
27 - Cow not about to rush along (6) - H{AST}EN AST from ? (Addendum - (-c)HASTEN see Shuchi's comments below)
28 - ”The mother of corruption,” according to Montaigne (8) - IDLENESS [CD]
DOWN
1 - Taking photograph of son having forty winks (8) - {S}NAPPING
2 - Sort of personality that is not rounded (7) - ANGULAR [CD]
3 - It includes section on ancient city (6) - S{PART}A Origin of S and A not clear
4 - Where retiree uncle’s stretching it out? (7,6) - LEISURE CENTRE*
6 - Direction in which a steward moves (8) - EASTWARD*
7 - A newspaperman covering cellblock is given an honour (7) - A{WARD}{ED}
8 - Guess wildly premier tailor has sleeve insert (6) - GUSSE*{T}
10 - Being easily enraged, the Rep stormed furiously (5-8) - SHORT-TEMPERED*
15 - Sponge he employed as agent in chemical warfare (8) - PHOSGENE*
16 - Drinks in endless card game with important side (8) - WHIS(-t){KEY}{S} Have heard of Whist so often but never seen anyone playing it.
18 - Mark, I am with the journalists (7) - {IM}PRESS
20 - Concentration of ascetic in overwhelming cold (7) - ESSEN{C}ES
21 - The endless dash for songbird (6) - TH(-e)(RUSH}
22 - Assail the ambassador after leave (6) - SCAT{HE}
27 - Cow not about to rush along (6) - H{AST}EN AST from ?
ReplyDelete{-c}HASTEN.
"cow" is the verb in wordplay, and "about" = c.
3 - It includes section on ancient city (6) - S{PART}A Origin of S and A not clear
ReplyDelete"it" is standard abbreviation for S.A. (sex appeal)!
While SA is a standard abbr. for 'sex appeal', 'it' is a word in itself that means 'sex appeal'.
ReplyDeleteThanks Shuchi,
ReplyDeleteI have never heard of 'it' and Sex Appeal, I looked it up in my dict. after you mentioned it and saw it there.
I don't think Cow and Chasten could be linked clearly. Cow would lead to oppress and Chasten to punish or discipline. Can you explain it with two sentence leading to the same meaning using Cow and Chasten, for my understanding?
While SA is a standard abbr. for 'sex appeal', 'it' is a word in itself that means 'sex appeal'. - oh yes, of course.
ReplyDeleteBoth 'cow' and 'chasten' can mean to humble/subdue. e.g. The college bully was chastened/cowed by the principal's reprimand.
I am not convinced.
ReplyDeleteThe college bully was chastened by the principal's reprimand - would mean he was demoralised or disciplined or punished.
whereas,
The college bully was cowed by the principal's reprimand - though the sentence does not sound correct, it would mean he was oppressed.
Though Chambers may have mentioned it, I personally am still not convinced of it's usage to provide the same meaning while substituting the two, nor would I ever use it in that sense.
The point is our mind gets stuck with primary, more popular, more-often-used meanings of words.
ReplyDeleteIf you look up Chambers you will find that the meaning 'subdue' is given under 'cow' and 'chasten'.
But as the Col. has noted, we use 'chasten' more often in the sesne of 'reprimand'.
Shuchi, I was thinking of exactly the same situation of a school principal and the class bully to frame illustrative sentences.
The school bully was giving hell of a time to a bunch of freshers until the principal came and chastened him and took him away to his room for some suitable punishment.
The goon who had entered the women's hostel and was teasing the inmates there was not to be cowed until the principal called in the police.
It might interest you to know that for the past three months I am contributing a 'wordpower' column to a children's magazine published from Madras where I write illustrative sentences to bring out the meanings: one could read just the sentences to get an idea of what the word means.
Incidentally, while reading books when we come across a new word, we can often get to know the meaning when we read further.
This is demonstrable even in Archer's latest book, Paths of Glory.
And when I was reading the Ladybird book The Nutcracker to my granddaughter when she was on a visit here from CA, I showed her this possibility.
Chaturvasi,
ReplyDeleteBoth sentences provided by you do not lead to the same word being discussed.
In the first one chastened refers to being scolded
In the second it should have been 'cowed down' and refers to being subdued
1 down is snapping and not snapped
ReplyDeleteregards,
ashwin
Thanks Ashwin,
ReplyDeleteI had Snapping in the grid but while typing here I put in Snapped
For cow (without 'down' going along with it) = subdue = chasten, there is support from standard dictionaries, crossword dictionaries and thesauri. I rest my case.
ReplyDeleteCol, a digression:
ReplyDeleteAbout "endless"
I have a question about use of 'endless' and am usually in a fix about whether to use it for the preceeding word or the one following it.
21 - The endless dash for songbird (6)
I could have used it for Dash or it's synonyms. Is it because The preceedes endless that we use it on THE, or else setter would have started the clue without using The? It would be silly for me use endless on IN in:
16 - Drinks in endless...
Probably in such cases the knowing the ans would help.
This post went unanswered in the Orkut blog, so am reposting, Col, to bother you!
Can someone explain how setter = ME in 19A please?
ReplyDelete@Col - Whist is a forerunner of Bridge. I guess that's why we see a lot of Bridge players and not many Whist players. Btw, while Bridge invloves quite a bit of intelligence, it's very addictive too.
Hi Raghunath,
ReplyDeleteIn such cases like you said it would depend on the answer.
Hi Arav,
Setter means the crossword setter himself = ME.
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ReplyDelete