Solve the previous cryptic clue and then post your own. I will start with one I have posted before:
Tired riddle: Words ending in “-gry” (6)
[Ah, cryptics! Great! I suck at cryptics. Let me see… a six-letter word meaning riddle. Okay, enigma. The word “ending” has 4 of the letters in enigma, but where does the “ma” come from? And why is it tired? “Words ending in -gry” with 6 letters would be hungry, and if I anagram that, I get “ghyrun”, an Alpatian weasel-hound, or maybe “runghy”, a dwarf boat, neither of which have anything to do with tired riddles. Off to ponder some more…]
[The letters r, i, d, e appear in both "tired and “riddle” . What’s a six-letter word for an angry ride? A donkey? Maybe it’s just “puzzle” but I can’t see it…]
[Tired could be weary… maybe it’s “weagry”?]
Perhaps this game will work better if the new clue answer must intersect the previous clue answer like in a true cryptic crossword. So if the last clue answer was CRYPTIC, then this clue answer will intersect **R **, also in the second position.
[Right! A good night’s sleep to clear away the cobwebs! Obviously, scrambling the letters in “riddle” gives us “dreidl” (I make you out of clay), which has the R in the second position. And no other reason to commend it. ]
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
But… there’s no “R” in "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA ".
Drowsy! (Anag WORDS + y)
An easy one:
Shoots vegetables from Brussels (7)
Oo! Aah! I’m impressed, really! I’ve been puzzling at that for days.
Sprouts.
Inside the humongous Western tough. (5)
Mongo
^^^
Rather good rats (4)
But the clue was: Words ending in “-gry”, not: Words ending in “-y”.
Is this how cryptic clues are supposed to work?
You “riddle” (anagram) the word “words”… and add
the ending in “-gry” which is, of course, the letter “y.”
Tired is the definition part of the clue.
In most American cryptic clues, the clue can be split with the definition on one side and the wordplay on the other. Punctuation is usually just for the “surface sense” and is best ignored.
On a further note, this is what’s known as a “Complex Clue” in that it uses two forms of wordplay (i.e. anagram + charade) to arrive at the answer. Complex clues tend to be tougher than those that resort to only one form of wordplay.
Dang (DAN + G)
Destruction sounds uplifting (6)
razing (homop raising)
Unusually remote celestial body (6)
Yeah – I usually mark mine up with // separating the synonym of the word to solve for, and then / between the parts making it up:
Tired // riddle: Words / ending in “-gry”
ANSWER? // Part 1: Riddle words = scramble “words” / Part 2 “ending in gry” = y
drows / y
drowsy!
ETA: obviously this isn’t always the pattern, but the ///_ or ///_ usually works somehow. Or there are three or more pieces making up the word. Or…
Similarly:
Philosopher retreats in total panic (5)
Unruly [anag] “baby won noted” // fictional dramatic home
Downton Abbey
Oinking tendency? (8)