Clinical Data – April Update

Apart from the abbreviations, which are almost entirely taken from Chambers, the core entries in the Clinical Data lists were derived from successful clues in Azed competitions, supplemented by indicators which I myself have identified and others which I have seen used in puzzles and have felt to be acceptable. Every month I will update the lists,

  • Adding as ‘Standard’ or ‘Advanced’ any indicators which I have identified as acceptable when setting my own puzzles
  • Removing indicators that I have had cause to question when setting puzzles
  • Marking as ‘Contentious’ indicators I have used in a puzzle and which have been rejected by a crossword editor (eg ‘reacting’ as a reversal indicator, rejected by The Listener)
  • Marking as ‘Contentious’ indicators Azed has explicitly stated that he will not accept (eg ‘extremely’ to indicate the first and last letters of a word, see the slip for AZ 2,330)
  • Adding, removing or changing the designation of indicators based on the suggestions of visitors to this site
  • Adding indicators used in successful Azed clues if I consider them to be acceptable

This month sees (as mentioned above) the inclusion of the following:

  • drinks/drinking/drunk (vt, containment indicator, definition ‘to absorb’)
  • voids/voiding/voided (vt, expulsion indicator, definition ‘to send out, discharge, emit’)
  • fires/firing/fired (vt, expulsion indicator, definition ‘to drive out’)
  • blows/blowing/blown (vt, expulsion indicator, definition ‘to squander’)
  • blows/blowing (vi, departure indicator, definition ‘to depart’)
  • blues (vt, expulsion indicator, definition ‘to squander’)
  • discounts/discounting/discounted (vt, expulsion indicator, definition ‘to ignore’)
  • fails/failing (vi, departure indicator, definition ‘to fall away’)
  • sets aside/setting aside/set aside (vt, expulsion indicator, definition ‘to put to one side’)
  • final (n, last letter selection indicator, definition ‘the last of a series (eg of letters in a word)’)
  • boss (vt, [Chambers erroneously shows it as intransitive], anagram indicator, definition = ‘to make a mess of’)
  • provoked (vt, anagram indicator, def ‘to excite into action’)
  • lies about/lying about/lies around/lying around (vi, reversal indicator, def ‘to be situated in the opposite direction’)

The following have been removed:

  • kicks/kicking/kicked (vt, expulsion indicator, definition ‘to free oneself from (eg a habit)’) – I don’t think this definition is sufficient justification since nothing concrete can be ‘kicked’ in this sense.

Although they featured in successful Azed clues this month, I have not included ‘burst‘ (first letter indicator), or ‘replacement of‘ (anagram indicator),  and won’t do unless they receive any support from readers, since I can’t justify either of them to myself based on the meanings ascribed by Chambers. Please use the comment form for this post if you have a view on these, or on any of the other indicators above.

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