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Sunday, August 17, 2025

NYT Crossword - January 04, 1990 | XWordHint

Master the NYT crossword from January 04, 1990 with our expert hint system. We provide synonyms, antonyms, and strategic clues to help you solve without spoiling the fun.

Puzzle Difficulty: Tricky

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. Snatch"

4 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a mechanical device for gripping an object
  • Similar words include: catch, snatch, snap
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: GRAB

2A: "5. Shore up"

4 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a support placed beneath or against something to keep it from shaking or falling
  • Similar words include: prop up, shore, airplane propeller
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: PROP

3A: "9. Arrest"

4 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that the event of something ending
  • Similar words include: terminate, barricade, hitch
  • Opposite of: continue, start
Click to reveal answer
Answer: STOP

4A: "13. Wedding missiles"

4 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that grains used as food either unpolished or more often polished
  • Similar words include: Elmer Rice, Sir Tim Rice, Elmer Leopold Rice
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: RICE

5A: "14. One of Jupiter's satellites"

4 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that (greek mythology) a queen of sparta who was raped by zeus who had taken the form of a swan; helen of troy was conceived in the rape of leda
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: LEDA

6A: "15. Sugar-maple spout"

5 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a column of wood or steel or concrete that is driven into the ground to provide support for a structure
  • Similar words include: stilt, bung, pile
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: SPILE

7A: "16. Indian tourist town"

4 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a city in northern india; former capital of the mogul empire; site of the taj mahal
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: AGRA

8A: "17. Currier's partner"

4 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that united states composer noted for his innovative use of polytonality (1874-1954)
  • Similar words include: Charles Edward Ives, James Merritt Ives, James Ives
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: IVES

9A: "18. Boccaccio's "The ___ Heart""

5 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that take in solid food
  • Similar words include: deplete, run through, rust
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: EATEN

10A: "19. Start of a quip"

14 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ______________
Click to reveal answer
Answer: THEMINISTERWHO

11A: "22. Ands, in Avignon"

3 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ETS

12A: "23. Tippler's trouble"

3 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that acute delirium caused by alcohol poisoning
  • Similar words include: delirium tremens
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: DTS

13A: "24. Factories, to Fifi"

6 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer
Answer: USINES

14A: "25. Quip: Part II"

9 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that engage in a rehearsal (of)
  • Similar words include: practice, rehearse, practise
  • Pattern: _________
Click to reveal answer
Answer: REHEARSES

15A: "27. Portends"

5 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that indicate by signs
  • Similar words include: omen, augur, prefigure
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: BODES

16A: "30. Dregs"

4 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that the sediment from fermentation of an alcoholic beverage
  • Similar words include: Rose Louise Hovick, lee, Robert E. Lee
  • Opposite of: windward
Click to reveal answer
Answer: LEES

17A: "31. "High ___," M. Anderson play"

3 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a prominent rock or pile of rocks on a hill
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: TOR

18A: "34. Saharan"

4 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that lacking sufficient water or rainfall
  • Similar words include: desiccated, desiccate, waterless
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ARID

19A: "35. Pansy's pad"

3 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a piece of furniture that provides a place to sleep
  • Similar words include: know, sleep together, bonk
  • Opposite of: get up, turn out
Click to reveal answer
Answer: BED

20A: "36. Mayor of Palm Springs"

4 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: BONO

21A: "37. Crest"

3 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that the upper part of anything
  • Similar words include: meridian, tiptop, top out
  • Opposite of: bottom
Click to reveal answer
Answer: TOP

22A: "38. Kodiak, e.g."

4 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that massive plantigrade carnivorous or omnivorous mammals with long shaggy coats and strong claws
  • Similar words include: carry, have, birth
  • Opposite of: bull
Click to reveal answer
Answer: BEAR

23A: "40. Emulated Clementine's dad"

5 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that get from the earth by excavation
  • Similar words include: mine
  • Opposite of: unmined
Click to reveal answer
Answer: MINED

24A: "41. Quip: Part III"

9 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a customary way of operation or behavior
  • Similar words include: drill, practice, rehearse
  • Pattern: _________
Click to reveal answer
Answer: PRACTICES

25A: "44. Emulate Delbert Mann"

6 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that command with authority
  • Similar words include: conduct, lineal, straight
  • Opposite of: inverse, collateral
Click to reveal answer
Answer: DIRECT

26A: "46. Today's jrs., next year"

3 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a soft silver-white or yellowish metallic element of the alkali metal group; turns yellow in air; occurs in celestite and strontianite
  • Similar words include: sr, steradian, atomic number 38
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: SRS

27A: "47. Ditty syllable"

3 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: TRA

28A: "50. End of the quip"

14 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ______________
Click to reveal answer
Answer: WHATHEPREACHES

29A: "53. Former Pacific defense gp."

5 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: SEATO

30A: "54. Harvest"

4 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that gather, as of natural products
  • Similar words include: draw, harvest, glean
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: REAP

31A: "55. "Scourge of mortals": Homer"

4 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that (greek mythology) greek god of war; son of zeus and hera; identified with roman mars
  • Similar words include: are, ar
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ARES

32A: "56. Of the distant past, poetically"

5 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: OLDEN

33A: "57. Bright thought in Toulon"

4 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: IDEE

34A: "58. Ancient Persian's contemporary"

4 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: MEDE

35A: "59. Play the lead"

4 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that (astronomy) a celestial body of hot gases that radiates energy derived from thermonuclear reactions in the interior
  • Similar words include: hotshot, wiz, superstar
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: STAR

36A: "60. Has the misery"

4 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that aromatic bulb used as seasoning
  • Similar words include: pain, trouble, garlic
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: AILS

37A: "61. Gnat or rat"

4 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a serious (sometimes fatal) infection of rodents caused by yersinia pestis and accidentally transmitted to humans by the bite of a flea that has bitten an infected animal
  • Similar words include: pestilence, blighter, cuss
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: PEST

Down Clues - Strategic Hints (39 clues)

1D: "1. Rasp"

5 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a frame of iron bars to hold a fire
  • Similar words include: grind, fret, rankle
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: GRATE

2D: "2. Correct"

5 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that an abstract idea of that which is due to a person or governmental body by law or tradition or nature; ; - eleanor roosevelt
  • Similar words include: correctly, mighty, right wing
  • Opposite of: falsify, wrong
Click to reveal answer
Answer: RIGHT

3D: "3. Character in "The Rivals""

5 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that extensive landed property (especially in the country) retained by the owner for his own use
  • Similar words include: Akka, land, Accho
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ACRES

4D: "4. Grin"

4 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a signal transmitted along a narrow path; guides airplane pilots in darkness or bad weather
  • Similar words include: ray of light, irradiation, shine
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: BEAM

5D: "5. Column base"

6 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that an architectural support or base (as for a column or statue)
  • Similar words include: pedestal, footstall
  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer
Answer: PLINTH

6D: "6. Change the text"

6 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that the act of rewriting something
  • Similar words include: revision, revisal, rescript
  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer
Answer: REVISE

7D: "7. Genethliacons"

4 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a lyric poem with complex stanza forms
  • Similar words include: ode
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ODES

8D: "8. Grazed upon"

8 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that let feed in a field or pasture or meadow
  • Similar words include: graze, range, pasture
  • Pattern: ________
Click to reveal answer
Answer: PASTURED

9D: "9. Generates"

6 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that the mass of eggs deposited by fish or amphibians or molluscs
  • Similar words include: engender, spawn, breed
  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer
Answer: SPAWNS

10D: "10. Give a tenth of one's income"

5 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a levy of one tenth of something
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: TITHE

11D: "11. Lineup in a supermarket"

5 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a spread made chiefly from vegetable oils and used as a substitute for butter
  • Similar words include: oleomargarine, margarine, marge
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: OLEOS

12D: "12. Stylograph"

3 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a writing implement with a point from which ink flows
  • Similar words include: write, playpen, indite
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: PEN

13D: "15. Sequential events"

6 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that similar things placed in order or happening one after another
  • Similar words include: serial, serial publication
  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer
Answer: SERIES

14D: "20. Roman date"

4 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that in the roman calendar: the 15th of march or may or july or october or the 13th of any other month
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: IDES

15D: "21. Being"

4 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ESSE

16D: "25. ___ rover (children's game)"

3 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that red color or pigment; the chromatic color resembling the hue of blood
  • Similar words include: reddened, scarlet, violent
  • Opposite of: gain
Click to reveal answer
Answer: RED

17D: "26. Raid warning"

5 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that condition of heightened watchfulness or preparation for action
  • Similar words include: watchful, spanking, alerting
  • Opposite of: unalert
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ALERT

18D: "27. Belfry occupant"

3 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that nocturnal mouselike mammal with forelimbs modified to form membranous wings and anatomical adaptations for echolocation by which they navigate
  • Similar words include: lick, cream, squash racquet
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: BAT

19D: "28. Pizarro's quest"

3 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ORO

20D: "29. Pickpocket"

3 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a depression in an otherwise level surface
  • Similar words include: fall, plunge, duck
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: DIP

21D: "31. Heavy weight"

3 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a united states unit of weight equivalent to 2000 pounds
  • Similar words include: net ton, short ton, gross ton
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: TON

22D: "32. Bill passed regularly"

3 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that the smallest whole number or a numeral representing this number
  • Similar words include: unmatched, unmatchable, ace
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ONE

23D: "33. If spared, it spoils"

3 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a long thin implement made of metal or wood
  • Similar words include: pole, retinal rod, gat
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ROD

24D: "35. One-celled microorganisms"

8 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that (microbiology) single-celled or noncellular spherical or spiral or rod-shaped organisms lacking chlorophyll that reproduce by fission; important as pathogens and for biochemical properties; taxonomy is difficult; often considered to be plants
  • Similar words include: bacterium
  • Pattern: ________
Click to reveal answer
Answer: BACTERIA

25D: "36. Encore!"

3 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a heavy brittle diamagnetic trivalent metallic element (resembles arsenic and antimony chemically); usually recovered as a by-product from ores of other metals
  • Similar words include: bismuth, atomic number 83, Bi
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: BIS

26D: "38. Type of lace"

6 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a native or inhabitant of brittany (especially one who speaks the breton language)
  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer
Answer: BRETON

27D: "39. Apiece"

4 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that (used of count nouns) every one considered individually
  • Similar words include: to each one, from each one, for each one
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: EACH

28D: "40. Tableland"

4 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that flat tableland with steep edges
  • Similar words include: table
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: MESA

29D: "41. Famous Vienna park"

6 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that an obnoxious and foolish and loquacious talker
  • Similar words include: chatterbox, magpie, babbler
  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer
Answer: PRATER

30D: "42. ___ Baline (Irving Berlin)"

6 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that jewish republic in southwestern asia at eastern end of mediterranean; formerly part of palestine
  • Similar words include: Zion, State of Israel, Yisrael
  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ISRAEL

31D: "43. Delicate pancakes"

6 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that paper with a crinkled texture; usually colored and used for decorations
  • Similar words include: crepe paper, crepe, French pancake
  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer
Answer: CREPES

32D: "44. Resided"

5 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that think moodily or anxiously about something
  • Similar words include: populate, dwell, lie
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: DWELT

33D: "45. "___ little pony ... ""

5 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: IHADA

34D: "47. Unlucky number on a match"

5 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that the cardinal number that is the sum of one and one and one
  • Similar words include: trio, trinity, 3
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: THREE

35D: "48. Bulrushes"

5 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that tall woody perennial grasses with hollow slender stems especially of the genera arundo and phragmites
  • Similar words include: vibrating reed, beating-reed instrument, reed
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: REEDS

36D: "49. Plus item"

5 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a useful or valuable quality
  • Similar words include: plus
  • Opposite of: liability
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ASSET

37D: "51. Foot: Comb. form"

4 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: PEDI

38D: "52. Corny"

4 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that temporary living quarters specially built by the army for soldiers
  • Similar words include: cantonment, summer camp, clique
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: CAMP

39D: "53. Mayday's cousin"

3 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that an internationally recognized distress signal in radio code
  • Similar words include: so, sol, soh
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: SOS

Puzzle Stats

37 Across
39 Down
76 Total

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

Processed: August 17, 2025 at 12:52 PM

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