The official bored-at-work cryptic crossword pass it on thread.

got it but not sure I get it completely

'In'=hidden word, 'reclining'=backwards, 'she'=definition (ie american diva).

Cheers

Oh, that's nice.

heh, i got that one immediately. it perfectly captures her essence, too <3

Her essence is a person who LOVES dolphins iirc, don't see that in the clue...

may have back-combed hair and love for american diva (6,5)

yeah yeah 'have' should be 'has' for the clue reading to work, just messin' here.

american diva might be full of love after back-combing hair

not a patch on 'foyer a chair american' i know.

that's all-time

this was in the grauniad the other day, there are (at least) two answers that work perfectly, we put the wrong one in.

Stick that's split (6)

that one fucked up our solving process for the longest time because the answer was so obviously BRANCH except it wasn't >:(

cleave?

wd be my first thought because it's one of those words with oppositional meanings

yeah it was extra-annoying when we realised because cleave is one of my all-time fav words for that exact reason

yeah it's an old chestnut, but obv when we thought 'branch' we didn't think on it any further.

so which meaning does 'cleavage' come from?

"split", obv

yeah it's an old chestnut, but obv when we thought 'branch' we didn't think on it any further

but if you're stuck on the connecting words b/c you can't make the letters fit then you should always revisit the one you think you've got right.

A few I've come up with that probably break some setters' rules or other but they make sense to me:

masturbate, half-mad for goddess (6)
no more cold (6)
lower ground for one such as Merkel (9)

need help

in the meantime

Hear cry of admonishment after paedo Jimmy exposes sausage (7)

A+

I don't really know how to help! I'll put up the answers in a bit.

just give us some letters

"i'll have a P please bob"

Oh yeah, haha. It's early. Here goes:
1. _ RI _ _ _
2. _ U _ _ _ _
3. _ A _ _ _ _ _ E _

the first one's Frigga i guess. had it when you posted it but not sure why

obv i get the "frig" part

"GA" half of GAGA?

Exactly.

Is the third one "Hamburger" (ground-up cow, i.e. something that lows)?

oh man that is evil!

vg

Haha, was completely thinking Una Merkel!

BTW, I encountered this recently:

Use and reuse pieces of souvenir, eating deer perhaps? (14) Although I eventually solved what appeared to be a made-up word, this was my first experience with a "letter-bank" clue. More below:

http://www.thenation.com/blog/172926/going-bank#

"hamburger" is tremendous, kudos.

i do not think i like the letter-bank, but i am wildly conservative so

Take it to the politics thread sonny

> Use and reuse pieces of souvenir, eating deer perhaps? (14)

venison... and a bit more?

Yep. It was the bit more that threw me for the longest time as I tried to have venison eat, or surround, another word, which wasn't right. Answer is in that Nation hyperlink.

Woah. Never seen a letter-bank clue before ot a fan on the whole but this is brilliant: Snatch, using every element as needed in whatever way possible (5-2-5-3)

*and not

remaining clue of mine:

_ U _ _ E _

Summer?

_ UM _ E _

can I apologise in advance for this one btw

Number!

yuss

Not bad imo

idgi - I know number is anaesthetic...

no = #

more cold = more numb

sorry

got that "Snatch" clue btw but i'll leave it for a bit if you want.

now i see how they can work i can live with them but there's something about the inexactitude that niggles

Ok. I would whinge that you need the dot in no. for it to work but will let you off 'cause hamburger.

Ah how about: More cold? No.

Xp

Letter banks seem less intuitive/natural than other clues but this could be bullshit. I like the idea though.

Dont mind either those guys imo clue was fine