Word Puzzle 91

Word Puzzle 91 – Solution with Explanation

Theme: None

Clues:

1.   Child with a dual degree? (4)

Babe, child (def), BA + BE (dual degrees)

2.   Will not to start to rent (5)

Lease, please (will), not to start (delete 1st letter in), rent (def)

3.   Call secretly to report endangered children (7)

Portend, call (def), secretly (hidden), rest is the fodder.

4.   Pass the lay person as connoisseur? (9)

Collector, col (pass), lector (lay person), connoisseur (def)

5.   Served up natural gin for this code breaker (4,6)

Alan Turing, served up (anagram of) natural + gin, rest is def.

6.   Tumble and break seven iron for fun?  (9)

Diversion, dive (tumble), break (anagram of) s (seven) + iron, fun (def)

7.   Model left the study halfway (7)

Mediate, T (model), left (deletion from) meditate (study), halfway (def)

8.   Hot scam from sign of nervousness? (7,2,5)

Stomach in knots, implicit meta, target “hot scam”, sign of nervousness (def), one way to get hot scam is via stomach anagram (in knots)

9.   The king of gods fusses in audition (4)

Zeus, King of gods (def), zoos (fusses), in audition (homophone)

10. Guys caught in a wrongful act, curse!! (7)

Torment, men (guys), caught in (insertion), tort (wrongful act), curse (def)

11. Dodge a speed consuming doctor (6)

Gambit, dodge (def), gait (speed), consuming (container), MB (doctor)

12. Fraternity housing rats? That’s creepy (7)

Fraught, frat (fraternity), housing (container), ugh (rats), creepy (def)

13. Bread from tea garden retreat (7)

Challah, bread (def), cha (tea), hall (garden), retreat (reversal)

14. Yasmeen Leroy is badly dependent on charity (12)

Eleemosynary, badly (anagram of) “Yasmeen Leroy”, dependent on charity (def)

15. Gustave Courbet’s Avant grade movement transformed modern art, he was some wizard (6)

Savant, some (hidden), wizard (def), rest is fodder.

16. Examine and adjust curtain size after removing the string (10)

Scrutinize, examine (def), adjust (anagram of) curtain + size – a (removing/deletion of) a (string)

17. How to brag in concert? (4,2,5)

Hand in Glove, how to (meta), brag (target), in concert (def), one way to get brag = R (hand), in (insertion), bag (glove)

18. Beheaded? Glue the hand (5)

Leave, beheaded (delete first letter in) cleave (glue), hand (def)

19. On some pretext he abstained on voting for war during Bush administration (7)

Forward, on (def), some (hidden), rest is fodder.

20. Around early part of 17th century, prehistoric axe trove was discovered, buried in the gulf (6)

Vortex, around (reversal), buried in (hidden), gulf (def), rest is fodder.

21. Good luck with getting the barge leak fixed (5,1,3)

Break a leg, good luck (def), fixed (anagram of) barge + leak.