Cryptic crossword No 2,372
Sat 12 Apr 2025, set byPanthera
Special Instructions: Thirteen of the winners and nominees for the American Dialect Society's Words of the Year 2024 appear as answers, while a further four are used (with varying degrees of transparency) in wordplay; the official ADS press release, linked below for convenience, is to be taken as the authority on their meanings.
Across
- "Not sober enough" - addict promises to stay clean at last (9)
- A right barney, or "quarrel" (5)
- Tarquin's sure to jabber interminably with Henry (3)
- Once again overwhelmed by band of showers in government trying to make the extreme seem normal (11)
- Though unprepared, attempt decent (albeit half-hearted) fight back (6)
- Modest dissent ending in compromise (6)
- Wield authority without having power (5)
- Did remarkably well in English (3)
- Be on the alert during interview at checkpoint (5)
- Anonymous satirist loses their head making garbage content (2,4)
- Big city doctor heading to sleepy Ayrshire? (6)
- Performing this outrageous act could lead to the creation of scenic tableaux (11)
- Seed that's essential to each step of fashionable softmaxxing routine? (3)
- According to the authorities, America's favourite assassin's a plumber! (5)
- Touch of anachronism during very popular period drama (4,5)
Down
- Part of an airport that reflects how your holiday should be? (4-4)
- Avoid this guy when visiting Key West (6)
- Whinge incessantly, holler noisily, and act irrationally when at one's limit (5,3)
- Bit sticking out from side of hexagon? (4)
- Gig that's attractive to vocalist (6)
- High art: for the most part, boring rubbish that deadens the mind (8)
- Doorstop's breaking down, getting covered in tiny nicks (3-5)
- Reward a most excellent time?! (4)
- Places one can go to learn about military police operations (8)
- The gasp I gusped - me, bottom? Ultimately, I see a big problem! (8)
- Predicament in which people start to give to the fullest extent (5-3)
- Bird of prey, soaring high in the French Alps, makes a spitting sound? (4,4)
- Starting late, arrive at work and enter a state of deep concentration (4,2)
- Business gets sanctioned and irrevocably damaged (6)
- In all likelihood, cocked up dispatch (4)
- Term for hedonist, with origins in (briefly) relevant album (4)
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