The answer to the meta is an adjective that describes the starred words' definitions
This began with a Facebook post on a friend's page that pointed me at something which I thought I could make into a meta puzzle. After some further thought I had a meta mechanism. But finding a grid to fit the mechanism into was hard. I went through maybe ten possible grids before I got to this one, which means the fill is on the trickier side. Still the meta should be fun! The answer to the meta is an adjective that describes the starred words' definitions. Answer & explanation: https://www.xword-muggles.com/viewtopic.php?p=161934#p161934
Check out "The MOAT Mini Pack of Marching Bands" here: https://www.ephesusscroll.com/about/interest4.html. US$5 gets you 7 Marching Bands which, hard enough on their own, now contain metas too. And once again there's a mega-meta!
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Leaderboard (updated hourly)
Hector solved 2024-03-26T05:51:32.338Z
Pair O Ducks solved 2024-03-26T11:34:06.043Z
Meg solved 2024-03-26T13:39:30.325Z
Alex Sisti solved 2024-03-26T13:56:05.737Z
Dave C solved 2024-03-26T13:58:15.267Z
LarsCaine solved 2024-03-26T14:08:08.589Z
boharr solved 2024-03-26T14:22:40.722Z
Cindy Weatherman solved 2024-03-26T14:23:47.347Z
Darth solved 2024-03-26T14:28:25.421Z
Carolyn solved 2024-03-26T14:48:36.607Z
rjy solved 2024-03-26T14:49:26.906Z
hoover solved 2024-03-26T15:19:47.389Z
I K Snamhcok solved 2024-03-26T15:24:14.821Z
woozy solved 2024-03-26T15:28:39.926Z
MatthewL solved 2024-03-26T16:04:20.169Z
HeadinHome solved 2024-03-26T16:30:09.675Z
Tyrpmom solved 2024-03-26T17:19:29.512Z
DIS solved 2024-03-26T18:09:27.664Z
edestlin solved 2024-03-26T18:59:02.113Z
Laura M solved 2024-03-26T19:06:28.966Z
kymike solved 2024-03-26T19:28:51.869Z
ajk solved 2024-03-26T20:11:12.243Z
SJMcK solved 2024-03-26T20:52:49.612Z
Bird Lives solved 2024-03-26T20:52:52.431Z
Ergcat solved 2024-03-26T21:02:04.574Z
Gutman solved 2024-03-26T21:13:48.597Z
DebbieC solved 2024-03-26T21:30:06.649Z
CPJohnson solved 2024-03-26T22:54:28.023Z
lbray53 solved 2024-03-26T23:03:47.933Z
Berto solved 2024-03-26T23:46:46.541Z
markhr solved 2024-03-26T23:50:48.016Z
Golem solved 2024-03-27T01:38:02.261Z
Danny K Bernstein solved 2024-03-27T06:17:28.472Z
BobJas solved 2024-03-27T10:52:30.989Z
JM solved 2024-03-27T14:04:57.325Z
dannyvee solved 2024-03-27T15:26:48.438Z
DrTom solved 2024-03-27T18:07:36.456Z
frostyjhammer solved 2024-03-28T03:12:43.069Z
Jeremy Smith solved 2024-03-28T04:09:19.327Z
Mg305 solved 2024-03-28T10:52:20.744Z
Cindy Heisler solved 2024-03-28T12:37:54.656Z
BarbaraK solved 2024-03-28T15:07:11.236Z
Johnny Luau solved 2024-03-28T17:50:50.739Z
DCBilly solved 2024-03-28T19:52:02.052Z
KayW solved 2024-03-28T21:39:50.324Z
whimsy solved 2024-03-29T02:35:35.719Z
Capn Rick solved 2024-03-29T18:54:24.816Z
kurtalert solved 2024-03-29T19:05:31.480Z
Abide solved 2024-03-30T20:52:04.199Z
Rick solved 2024-03-31T03:10:11.994Z
Comments
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Interesting idea! I just solved assuming a normal "alternate entry" mechanism, and only after a night's sleep do I see what you are doing. Totally (inflammable).
lbray53 3s · 2024-03-26T13:32:57.237Z
Had trouble nailing down the last letter. Also coould not get the 7D and 18A crossing. I had TORAH and SCAMPER.
SCARPER is British as well. In The Third Man, a film I've seen so many times I know most of the lines, the British sergeant tells a balloon man to scarper.
That figures. We probably borrowed the word from the Brits!
whimsy 12:36 · 2024-03-29T16:18:40.028Z
Remembered where I'd seen "Scarper" before -- Epigraph to Chapter 36 of (what else?) "Watership Down": "We was just goin' ter scarper When along comes Bill 'Arper, So we never done nuffin' at all." Cited as a Music Hall song, and some research gave me Scottish performer Sir Harry Lauder -- who toured Australia. :-)
Nicely done puzzle, Ben!
Dave C 3s · 2024-03-26T14:00:53.476Z
Fun. At first I was looking for other answers for the starred clues - e.g., erode instead of weather. Is 18-A an Aussie term - I have "scarter".
But having trouble backsolving BOLT = O. (BOLT and BOUND are near synonyms to my mind and I see SCARPER but... OFF? ODE? ONO? ONS, OLA? .... just not getting it.)
Well, I had that one of BOLT or BOUND would be SCARPER and the other wouldn't. And by back solving it was clear it was BOLT=SCARPER and BOUND = O for something. (The Bound FOR and Off FOR escaped me and I was stuck on the idea of BOUND= LEAP and move and not direction so much). But for some inexplicable reason I kept typing BOLT when I meant BOUND. I did that at least three times. I almost did it several times in typing this reply.
MatthewL 🤓7:26 · 2024-03-26T16:07:06.485Z
Nice one. Had OPPOSES first (using SRY as the alternate answer to APOLOGY), but then realized that was a verb, so backsolved for DEFENSE. Thanks for the puzzle, Ben!
HeadinHome 🤓1:33 · 2024-03-26T16:34:09.941Z
I didn’t find that grid too crunchy! Great collection of words… what a strange language we speak. (DUST reminds me of Amelia Bedelia, the overly literal kids’ book character … she reads “dust the furniture” and so applies dust to all the furniture!
It took me a long time to see how BOUND could equal OFF. But if you include the "for" so "bound for" and "off for", it makes perfect sense. I kept thinking BOUND equals Hop and Leap and Bounce, bounce bounce.....
Meg 2s · 2024-03-26T17:29:04.527Z
I solved. I see the path. I must be missing something because I don’t see how the answer relates.
These are words that have opposing meaning. DUST means both to remove dust and to place dust on thing. WEATHER means both to wear down and to resist wearing down, and so forth. FAST means both rapidly moving and adhered permanently set. Inflamable and Cleave are two others.
Meg 2s · 2024-03-26T20:50:01.484Z
Thanks! That cleared it up!
Laura M 🤓8:35 · 2024-03-26T19:07:38.625Z
Nice!
kymike 3s · 2024-03-26T19:31:00.325Z
Monty Python wouldn't have been the same if the knights had yelled "Scarper, Scarper"!
had to backsolve the D, and still of two minds whether the starred entries are themselves the clues for the alternates, or whether the clues for the alternates are supposed to match the starred entries too. Regardless, fun stuff, thanks. :)
Bird Lives 3s · 2024-03-26T20:54:38.540Z
Fascinating -- each word with two contradictory meanings. Thanks for this one.
That took me WAY longer than I thought. When I saw PEER and EQUAL as well as FAST and PROMPT I figured that they were alternate meanings (good old English!!!). But some were MUCH harder than others for me. I got caught up in alternate, not opposite, so WEATHERED and ETCH, APOLOGY and SRY and BOUND was tough because I was looking for an alternate. Finally it hit me that it was the OPPOSITE (which still took some searching) and then I managed to get home. Very nice Ben, funny because on the Muggle Zoom we were discussing how English was designed to play word tricks. Hmm, a quick read shows that Hector also got caught up in that so I don't feel bad since he is a MUCH better solver than I. Thanks for a morning of entertainment.
Cindy Heisler 2s · 2024-03-28T12:40:34.658Z
After a bit of confusion, I finally caught on. Thanks, Ben!
KayW 🤓7:14 · 2024-03-28T21:45:23.460Z
Loved the wordplay in this. It took lots of pondering just to solve it - I can't imagine coming up with this!
I was on the right track pre-nudges but had a hard time matching up all the words - had to backsolve WEATHER. I had OVERCOME for BOUND but finally decided that was a better match for WEATHER and BOUND became OFF. Thanks for the fun challenge, Ben!