The New York Times Crossword
Brandon Koppy works for a digital ad agency in Austin, Texas. He started solving crosswords in college and got serious about constructing around 2018.
ACROSS
1 Syllables when you forget
the words
4 The universe has an
estimated 1,082 of them
9 “A mouse!’’
12 Beyoncé chart-topper “Single ____ (Put a Ring on It)’’
18 Simile center
19 ____ Lawrence College
20 Magazine co-founded in 1945 by Hélène Gordon Lazareff
22 Similar-sounding phrase, such as “I scream’’ for “ice cream’’
23 Field of Dreams
26 Guys and Dolls
27 Lucrative and undemanding
28 Ingredient in a McDonald’s
McFlurry
29 Seasonal winds
31 Fictional brand of rocketpowered roller skates
32 “Cross my heart!’’
35 Fam girl
36 Sounds of doubt
38 Star Trek
40 Woodworker’s tool
42 Some tourist spots in San
Francisco
43 Tax pro, for short
45 Ancient work that describes
the sacred tree Yggdrasil
46 Trendy home gym purchase
50 Top Gun
55 Baseball family name much
seen in crosswords
56 Jerkface
59 Tightly affixed
60 Parrot’s sound
61 Insurance department
63 “____ for me, thanks’’
64 Big no-nos
66 Letters From Iwo Jima
67 The Imitation Game
69 The Fifth Element
73 Perfectly comfortable
75 1930s migrant to California
76 Spirits
77 Sesh on Reddit
80 Speed reader?
81 Gave, as gossip
83 Trimmed parts of green
beans
84 A Man for All Seasons
87 Matricidal figure of Greek
myth
89 Golden-rule word
90 Spanish “Listen!’’
91 Dostoyevsky’s Prince Myshkin, so the book title declares
93 Cause for switching
positions
97 Scent of a Woman
104 “____ you decent?’’
105 ____ Toy Barn (“Toy Story
2’’ locale)
106 Small things that you pluck
107 Breakout band for Harry Styles and Zayn Malik, familiarly 108 Overlie
111 Mad magazine cartoonist
Drucker
112 Get the juices flowing?
113 Wayne’s World
114 Space Jam
118 Gene variant
119 Denominator in the velocity
formula
120 Beam for train tracks
121 Fragrant ring
122 Candy with the slogan “Not
sorry’’
123 Skosh
124 Main artery
125 Panic button, of a sort
DOWN
1 Pet that should come with a
lint roller?
2 Given that
3 Exasperated parent’s retort
4 Flue-like
5 Confucian philosophy
6 Singer Rita
7 “Floating terror’’ of the sea
8 Many social media users
9 Donkey with a pinned-on
tail
10 Two in a million?
11 “The Kiss’’ painter
12 Successfully uses a
password
13 Melodious
14 Place to develop one’s
chops
15 Innate
16 Part of a makeup test?
17 Texting tech, briefly 21 “____ es!’’ (“That’s right!’’:
Sp.)
24 “Clueless’’ protagonist
25 Accept eagerly, with “at’’
30 Org. with an annual
Codebreaker Challenge
32 Double-crossed and halfbaked
33 Embarrassing public
episode
34 Restless desire
37 Luxurious
39 Product for one who
wonders, “Am I expecting?’’
40 Increased into something
much more valuable
41 Spy novelist Deighton
44 Weave off the shoulder?
46 Get ready for vacation
47 Civil rights activist Baker
48 It may be forgiven
49 Mystic’s board
50 4x World Series winner
Martinez
51 [more info below]
52 Ice cream containers
53 ____ compensation
(subject of modern debate)
54 Spanish marinade
57 Drawer of shorts, e.g.
58 Cutthroat mentality
62 Cardinal’s hat, in Britain
65 Tender areas
67 Pop in the fridge
68 Hershey’s chocolate-andtoffee bar
70 Diatribe
71 Quaint sign word
72 Noun-making suffix 74 Fumble for words
76 Dodos
77 City that replaced Lagos as
Nigeria’s capital
78 Cameo
79 Predatory insect living in
woodpiles
82 French fabric
85 Caramel or hot fudge,
basically
86 Euphemistic exclamation
88 Ike’s domain in W.W.II
91 Reason the physicist stayed
in bed?
92 “The Shape of Water’’
director
94 Natasha ____, Boris’s partner against Rocky and Bullwinkle
95 Some water-park rides
96 Olympics symbol for
Madrid’s country
98 Sang along when you forgot
the words
99 Ingredient in healing gel
100 Latte art medium
101 Arch support
102 Bill killers
103 Utopian
106 Like a birthday cake, preparty
109 “____ All That’’ (1999 film)
110 Frequently, quaintly
112 Lugosi of horror films
113 Fish with an elongated jaw
115 Singer Sumac
116 Describe in a negative way
117 Toke