Sunday, August 24, 2025

January 26, 1990 NYT Clues Solutions | XWordHint

Master the NYT crossword from January 26, 1990 with our expert hint system. We provide synonyms, antonyms, and strategic clues to help you solve without spoiling the fun.

Puzzle Difficulty: Challenging

Pro Tip: Start with the fill-in-the-blank clues - they're usually the easiest entry points!

Across Clues - Strategic Hints (37 clues)

1A: "1. Life-jacket stuffing"

5 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a plant fiber from the kapok tree; used for stuffing and insulation
  • Similar words include: white silk-cotton tree, Ceiba pentandra, vegetable silk
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: KAPOK

2A: "6. Respond to an S O S"

4 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that the activity of contributing to the fulfillment of a need or furtherance of an effort or purpose
  • Similar words include: facilitate, assistance, service
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: HELP

3A: "10. How wild ones run"

4 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that frenzied as if possessed by a demon
  • Similar words include: murderously, possessed, demoniacal
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: AMOK

4A: "14. Solo"

5 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that isolated from others
  • Similar words include: solo, only, solitary
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ALONE

5A: "15. Kind of code"

4 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a particular geographical region of indefinite boundary (usually serving some special purpose or distinguished by its people or culture or geography)
  • Similar words include: arena, expanse, region
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: AREA

6A: "16. Tidal wave"

4 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a person who evokes boredom
  • Similar words include: eagre, assume, carry
  • Opposite of: interest
Click to reveal answer
Answer: BORE

7A: "17. Prepares potatoes, in a way"

5 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that grains used as food either unpolished or more often polished
  • Similar words include: Sir Tim Rice, Elmer Reizenstein, Timothy Miles Bindon Rice
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: RICES

8A: "18. Religious lore"

9 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: _________
Click to reveal answer
Answer: HIEROLOGY

9A: "20. Jaunty"

6 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that marked by up-to-dateness in dress and manners
  • Similar words include: dapper, spruce, raffish
  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer
Answer: RAKISH

10A: "22. G. O'Hara's pop song: 1918"

7 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: _______
Click to reveal answer
Answer: KKKKATY

11A: "23. Milton's serpent monster"

6 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ELLOPS

12A: "25. Down a comestible"

3 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that take in solid food
  • Similar words include: exhaust, consume, rust
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: EAT

13A: "26. Naïve"

7 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that characterized by an inability to mask your feelings; not devious
  • Similar words include: uncultured, uncultivated, ingenuous
  • Opposite of: disingenuous, artful
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ARTLESS

14A: "28. Tried for lofty goals"

7 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that have an ambitious plan or a lofty goal
  • Similar words include: aim, shoot for, draw a bead on
  • Pattern: _______
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ASPIRED

15A: "32. Where to borrow bks."

3 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: LIB

16A: "33. Manila measures"

5 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a large quantity of written matter
  • Similar words include: ream
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: REAMS

17A: "35. Eight-ball material"

5 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a hard smooth ivory colored dentine that makes up most of the tusks of elephants and walruses
  • Similar words include: pearl, off-white, tusk
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: IVORY

18A: "36. Conductor Buketoff"

4 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: IGOR

19A: "38. Hungarian "cubist""

5 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: RUBIK

20A: "40. French magazine"

4 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ELLE

21A: "41. Angry fan"

5 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: BOOER

22A: "43. Long-eared S.A. rodents"

5 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that hindu god of death; opposite of kama
  • Similar words include: Mara, mara, Dolichotis patagonum
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: MARAS

23A: "45. Celtic Neptune"

3 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that the sea personified; father of manannan; corresponds to welsh llyr
  • Similar words include: Lir
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: LER

24A: "46. Annoying"

7 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that so lacking in interest as to cause mental weariness; ; ; ; ; ; - edmund burke; ; - mark twain
  • Similar words include: boring, dull, tedious
  • Pattern: _______
Click to reveal answer
Answer: IRKSOME

25A: "48. Tyrannize"

7 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that come down on or keep down by unjust use of one's authority
  • Similar words include: crush, suppress, persecute
  • Pattern: _______
Click to reveal answer
Answer: OPPRESS

26A: "50. Piper's due"

3 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that something that remunerates
  • Similar words include: give, devote, bear
  • Opposite of: default
Click to reveal answer
Answer: PAY

27A: "51. Like some bills"

6 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that without payment
  • Similar words include: amateur, recreational, volunteer
  • Opposite of: paid
Click to reveal answer
Answer: UNPAID

28A: "52. Coincide in part"

7 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a representation of common ground between theories or phenomena
  • Similar words include: intersection, convergence, lap
  • Pattern: _______
Click to reveal answer
Answer: OVERLAP

29A: "55. Mail suits"

6 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that protective covering made of metal and used in combat
  • Similar words include: armour, armor
  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ARMORS

30A: "58. Typical Tyson triumphs"

9 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a very attractive or seductive looking woman
  • Similar words include: beauty, sweetheart, kayo
  • Pattern: _________
Click to reveal answer
Answer: KNOCKOUTS

31A: "60. Carroll's "slithy ___""

5 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: TOVES

32A: "61. Moola"

4 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that informal terms for money
  • Similar words include: shekels, moolah, dough
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: GELT

33A: "62. Deer: Ger."

4 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: REHE

34A: "63. "While memory holds ___ ... ": Shak."

5 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ASEAT

35A: "64. Bikini tops"

4 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that an undergarment worn by women to support their breasts
  • Similar words include: bra, brassiere, bandeau
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: BRAS

36A: "65. Limned"

4 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that united states actor (born in ireland); father of georgiana emma barrymore (1827-1862)
  • Similar words include: draw off, trace, take in
  • Opposite of: push, repel
Click to reveal answer
Answer: DREW

37A: "66. Kin of wimps"

5 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that an insignificant student who is ridiculed as being affected or boringly studious
  • Similar words include: nerd, dweeb, swot
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: NERDS

Down Clues - Strategic Hints (37 clues)

1D: "1. Bassist Gary ___"

4 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: KARR

2D: "2. Suffix for margin or Saturn"

4 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ALIA

3D: "3. Soft-cover volume"

10 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that your personal financial means
  • Similar words include: pocket book, purse, handbag
  • Pattern: __________
Click to reveal answer
Answer: POCKETBOOK

4D: "4. Oona or Tip"

6 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ONEILL

5D: "5. "Big Red Bus" author"

7 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: _______
Click to reveal answer
Answer: KESSLER

6D: "6. Gotcha!"

3 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: HAH

7D: "7. Actors Estrada and Rhodes"

5 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ERIKS

8D: "8. Amaryllis family member"

4 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that plant having a large slender white bulb and flat overlapping dark green leaves; used in cooking; believed derived from the wild allium ampeloprasum
  • Similar words include: Allium porrum, scallion
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: LEEK

9D: "9. Inventor of celluloid"

6 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that place temporarily
  • Similar words include: park
  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer
Answer: PARKES

10D: "10. ___ absolute (construction oft used by Caesar)"

8 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that the case indicating the agent in passive sentences or the instrument or manner or place of the action described by the verb
  • Similar words include: ablative case
  • Pattern: ________
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ABLATIVE

11D: "11. Debatable"

4 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a hypothetical case that law students argue as an exercise
  • Similar words include: arguable, deliberate, debatable
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: MOOT

12D: "12. Bacchic party"

4 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that any act of immoderate indulgence
  • Similar words include: splurge, debauch, debauchery
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ORGY

13D: "13. Lock's buddy"

3 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that metal device shaped in such a way that when it is inserted into the appropriate lock the lock's mechanism can be rotated
  • Similar words include: paint, primal, key fruit
  • Opposite of: atonality
Click to reveal answer
Answer: KEY

14D: "19. Giraffe's cousin"

5 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that similar to the giraffe but smaller with much shorter neck and stripe on the legs
  • Similar words include: Okapia johnstoni
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: OKAPI

15D: "21. Fire extinguisher"

5 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: HOSER

16D: "24. Psalm, to a prêtre"

6 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer
Answer: PSAUME

17D: "26. Ironclad defense, usually"

5 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that (law) a defense by an accused person purporting to show that he or she could not have committed the crime in question
  • Similar words include: exculpation, excuse, self-justification
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ALIBI

18D: "27. Harshness"

5 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that something hard to endure
  • Similar words include: asperity, grimness, severeness
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: RIGOR

19D: "28. " ... arms/Are strong ___ bands": Longfellow"

6 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ASIRON

20D: "29. Reinvested in C.D.'s, e.g."

10 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: __________
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ROLLEDOVER

21D: "30. Novelist Gardner et al."

5 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ERLES

22D: "31. Cloth colorers"

5 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that someone whose job is to dye cloth
  • Similar words include: dyer
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: DYERS

23D: "34. President of Gabon: 1961-67"

3 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a master's degree in business
  • Similar words include: Master in Business Administration, Master in Business
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: MBA

24D: "37. Social payment"

8 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that (often used with `pay') a formal expression of esteem
  • Similar words include: respectfulness, prise, value
  • Opposite of: disesteem, disrespect
Click to reveal answer
Answer: RESPECTS

25D: "39. Greek letter"

5 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that the 10th letter of the greek alphabet
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: KAPPA

26D: "42. "Masters Without Slaves" author"

5 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ROARK

27D: "44. Frugal"

7 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a resident of sparta
  • Similar words include: severe, ascetic, ascetical
  • Pattern: _______
Click to reveal answer
Answer: SPARTAN

28D: "47. Petruchio, to Kate"

6 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer
Answer: MYLORD

29D: "49. Having cracks and crevices"

6 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that having a surface covered with a network of cracks and small crevices
  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer
Answer: RIMOSE

30D: "51. Kaufman's "___ Down Staircase""

5 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: UPTHE

31D: "52. Lollapalooza"

4 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that in operation or operational
  • Similar words include: unrivalled, unitary, i
  • Opposite of: off
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ONER

32D: "53. Palm or sole"

4 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: VOLA

33D: "54. Violinist Leopold"

4 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: AUER

34D: "56. Peruse"

4 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that something that is read
  • Similar words include: translate, register, learn
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: READ

35D: "57. J.F.K. speedsters"

4 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: SSTS

36D: "58. U.S.S.R. security police"

3 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that formerly the predominant security police organization of soviet russia
  • Similar words include: Soviet KGB, Committee for State Security
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: KGB

37D: "59. Stitch"

3 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that fasten by sewing; do needlework
  • Similar words include: run up, stitch, tailor
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: SEW

Puzzle Stats

37 Across
37 Down
74 Total

Disclaimer: Crossword clues © The New York Times. Educational content for puzzle enthusiasts.

Processed: August 24, 2025 at 05:20 AM

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