TURNS OF PHRASE
Spencer Leach is a third-year mechanical-engineering student at Virginia Tech. Their engineering background influences how they generate themes — for this puzzle, they used a custom bit of Python code to compare a list of homonyms against common phrases. Spencer is currently in the midst of a summer-internship search and hopes any would-be employers enjoy this puzzle!
ACROSS
1 ‘‘Let me repeat . . . ’’
6 Musical speeds
11 When repeated, a cry of approval
15 Like many creatures in modern sci-fi movies, for short
18 Light wood
19 Cross figure
20 New Jersey’s Sea ____ City
21 Spot for a shot
22 Spook some creatures in an aquarium’s touch tank?
24 Fiery matches?
26 Band with the 1994 hit ‘‘What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?’’
27 Some vocal solos
28 In the style of
30 ‘‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’’ playwright Edward
31 Bad material for a silk purse, proverbially
33 Deliver a blow to Dracula?
37 With ‘‘the,’’ a sudden flip from attraction to disgust, in modern parlance
38 Brand whose stock price increased 50 percent in the first six months of 2020
40 Blooms named for their shape
41 Set of selections
43 ‘‘You sure?’’
44 Before-
45 No. calculated from letters
47 References a Vatican Library source?
49 Went down a slippery slope
50 ____ Palmas, Canary Islands
51 Kind of history
52 About, on a memo
53 Certain Ivy Leaguer
54 Support
55 ‘‘Forget it!’’
57 Welcomes at the door
59 Tender spots
60 Referees a Tennessee football game poorly?
64 Common pet fish
67 Superlative held by the Atacama Desert
68 ‘‘Barry’’ or ‘‘Ballers’’
72 Stadium sounds
73 Plain
74 Cap’s place
76 It might be a stretch
77 Suffix with Manhattan or meteor
78 Fortitude
79 Write an ode to a caffeinated soda?
82 Airport abbr.
83 Addresses online
84 Sound unit found in many Asian languages
85 Nip and tuck, so to speak
86 Like some teas
88 Kind of edition with bonus tracks, perhaps
89 Stadium cheer
90 Start preparing borscht?
92 Fully commit
96 Court cry
97 Garnet is its birthstone: Abbr.
98 Sculpting stuff
99 Super ____ (GameCube predecessor)
101 ‘‘Bather in the Woods’’ painter
104 Make smash burgers?
108 Pretty cool stuff
109 Burn a little
110 Decides that one will
111 Major artery
112 ____ cha beef (Chinese dish)
113 Jumped over, as a checkers piece
114 Michelangelo work whose name translates to ‘‘compassion’’
115 Suddenly think of
DOWN
1 Letter-shaped support piece
2 Certain corporate department
3 Mission San Antonio de Valero, more familiarly
4 Neighbor of Leb.
5 World’s oldest capital city, settled in the third millennium B.C.
6 Taylor Swift song that begins, ‘‘Combat, I’m ready for combat’’
7 Makes a gaffe
8 ‘‘Mamma ____!’’
9 ‘‘Gangnam Style’’ rapper
10 Comment from someone exiting the mall on Black Friday
11 Pedal-operated instrument
12 That, in Toledo
13 Umbrella term for eboys or goth girls
14 Struck out
15 Stealthy criminal
16 City feature that’s been found to improve mental health
17 ‘‘None for me, thanks’’
19 Kind of seeds in a healthful smoothie
23 Footslog
25 Balm ingredient
29 ____ Luthor, nemesis of Superman
32 Vintage restaurant items?
33 Spoil, with ‘‘on’’
34 Git
35 ‘‘Just a little longer!’’
36 Lauder of cosmetics
39 Do some light work on?
41 Barcelona museum subject
42 H’s on some college houses
43 ‘‘The Lorax’’ setting
44 Actress Cravalho who voiced Moana
46 Doesn’t just assume
47 Swindle
48 Wedding-cake layer
49 Survive
53 Chuck, slangily
54 Final phase of a video game, perhaps
56 Big name in records
57 [Actually, don’t change that]
58 Sounds of doubt
59 ____-Caps (candy)
61 Birds known for their loud, complex songs
62 Royal title
63 Assist in a crime
64 Gooey pairing with fig jam
65 Economic-justice catchphrase
66 Its water is nearly 10 times saltier than ocean water
69 Animal product
70 Foreboding sign
71 ‘‘Impressive!’’
73 Who cries, ‘‘You get a car, you get a car!’’ in a viral meme
74 Toy brand for a budding engineer, maybe
75 ‘‘I don’t like that,’’ in Spanish
78 Take away
79 Police captain on ‘‘Brooklyn NineNine’’
80 Burden
81 Enthusiastic agreement
84 Genre for many a boy band
87 GPS suggestions: Abbr.
88 Part of the D.O.J.
89 It’s a four-letter word, aptly
90 Neighbors of the Navajos
91 One-named singer born in Reykjavik
93 What Ove’s name was changed to for the American film adaptation of ‘‘A Man Called Ove’’
94 Like neon
95 ‘‘Groovy!’’
98 Sibilant summons
100 ‘‘South Park’’ boy
102 Density symbol, in engineering
103 1990s Indian prime minister
105 Sch. in N.Y.
106 Quebec’s Festival d’____
107 ‘‘You’re accusing me?!’’