Take It Away!

Clues will often ask you to take a word (or a letter or a letter combo) away from another word, to leave another. For example, "Californian blokes leave lamentable furniture (5)" , where "Californian" = LA (i.e. Los Angeles), "blokes = MEN, so if they leave LAMENTABLE, they leave you with TABLE - a piece of FURNITURE. Another example: "Dog abandons swearing to make music (4)" , where "swearing" = CURSING and "dog" = CUR, so when CUR leaves, you're left with SING = make music. A third example: "A marine departs heated to get married (3)" where "heated" = WARMED, "a marine" = A RM (a Royal Marine) and when they leave WARMED, you're ;eft with WED = get married. If you like my crosswords, then you'll LOVE the Cryptic Mystic's YouTube channel, which is a brilliant resource for cryptic newbies and has been kind enough to feature a few of my puzzles https://www.youtube.com/@The_Cryptic_Mystic