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"
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"
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"
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"
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"
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"
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"
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"
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""
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"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ______________
Click to reveal answer
Answer: THEMINISTERWHO
11A: "22. Ands, in Avignon"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ETS
12A: "23. Tippler's trouble"
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"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer
Answer: USINES
14A: "25. Quip: Part II"
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"
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"
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"
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"
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"
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"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: BONO
21A: "37. Crest"
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."
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"
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"
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"
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"
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"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: TRA
28A: "50. End of the quip"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ______________
Click to reveal answer
Answer: WHATHEPREACHES
29A: "53. Former Pacific defense gp."
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: SEATO
30A: "54. Harvest"
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"
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"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: OLDEN
33A: "57. Bright thought in Toulon"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: IDEE
34A: "58. Ancient Persian's contemporary"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: MEDE
35A: "59. Play the lead"
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"
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"
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"
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"
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""
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"
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"
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"
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"
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"
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"
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"
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"
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"
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"
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"
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"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ESSE
16D: "25. ___ rover (children's game)"
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"
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"
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"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ORO
20D: "29. Pickpocket"
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"
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"
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"
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"
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!"
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"
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"
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"
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"
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)"
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"
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"
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 ... ""
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: IHADA
34D: "47. Unlucky number on a match"
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"
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"
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"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: PEDI
38D: "52. Corny"
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"
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