Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

Anto

2d Exploits of male types …(5)

M****

What does ‘…’ mean? Where do you start?



I have stared at this on and off for a few hours and have thrown the toys out the pram.

Male gives the usual single letter abbreviation, then there's an old-fashioned word for types, kinds, sorts. It's much more common in the singular. Exploits, uses, takes advantage of.

Maybe the ... means the next clue is related in some way?

Hi Druh,

2d - As you are no doubt aware, the definition in a cryptics usually appears at the beggining or end of the clue. We also know that "male" is often clued as M so, given that the M appears midway through the clue and is the first letter of the answer, it is a safe assumption that what precedes it must be the definition "exploits" and what follows it must produce the final 4 letters. Given that the only word that does follow M is "ilks" a plural, we can assume the last letter is also a plural and so the clue ends in S.

This leaves you with looking for a 4 letter word meaing "trpes" - in this instance it's ILKS.

The ellipsis are misleading and unnecessary in this instance soi can be ignored.

The ellipsis is not relevant to solving; it just indicates not a complete thought, but one that is supposedly completed in the next clue.

The definition here is Exploits as a verb, and it’s the usual single letter for males followed by four letters for types, i.e. sorts, kinds, genres, etc.

There you go: three takes on it. 😆

Hi druh
The ellipsis at the end of a clue and the start of the next one are "indicating" a link between the two clues. Very rarely this is a genuine one (but not in this case!).
This one uses a Scottish meaning of "types", with "exploits" (as a verb) the definition.

... unless, as Malone says, (see what I did there?, Yes, very clever Bren), they are a reference to the next clue.

Thank you troops.

Thanks for that, Brendan. I hadn't seen the puzzle, so was just guessing re the use of the ...

I hope you - and your super pencils or pens - did last week's EV?

Of course another use of “…” might be to act as the definition in a clue for ELLIPSIS.

I’m sure I’ve seen it done.