The clue workshop · Practice round

Cryptic Workshop

Expert workshop 5 · Expert · Solve the clue. Understand the trick.

Untimed · take your time

Unpick the clue. Enjoy the penny dropping.

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This workshop

0 of 100

Clues solved0 of 3

Hints taken0

Revealed0

Device crib sheet

Anagram: “Friend: tame, in the wild (4)” gives MATE. TAME rearranged; "in the wild" is the indicator.
Hidden word: “Fruit in grape arbour (4)” gives PEAR. graPE ARbour.
Reversal: “Daze nuts, sent back (4)” gives STUN. NUTS backwards.
Charade: “Young swine: hog allowed (6)” gives PIGLET. PIG (hog) + LET (allowed).
Container: “Club holding ring is a vessel (4)” gives BOAT. O (ring) inside BAT (club).
Deletion: “Crow headless in argument (3)” gives ROW. CROW without its first letter.
Initial letters: “Initially some unusual nights bring sunshine (3)” gives SUN. Some Unusual Nights.
Double definition: “Contest for a light (5)” gives MATCH. A match is a contest, and a match gives a light.
Homophone: “Seven days, we hear, feeble (4)” gives WEAK. Sounds like WEEK.
Compound: “First appearance: Underground, then day, going back (5)” gives DEBUT. Nested operations: TUBE (Underground) + D (day) gives TUBED, which is then reversed. Each result feeds the next.
Cryptic definition: “Something to hold in the dark, if you are brave (6)” gives CANDLE. No wordplay: the whole clue is one misleading definition.

Rules in brief

A workshop session of three cryptic clues. Each clue has a definition at one end and wordplay that builds the same answer. Solve them in any order; hints teach the trick step by step.

Round cw-e5 · rules v1.0