BIG MONDAY CROSSWORD
ACROSS
1 Alexandre Gustave ___ (1832-1923), French civil engineer who designed the internal framework of the Statue of Liberty (6)
4 Conducting enclosure used to block electromagnetic fields, invented in England in 1836 (7,4)
9 Metal peg placed transversely through an axle
to keep a wheel in position (8)
10 Second-largest island in the world, not including Australia, in the SW Pacific north of the latter (3,6)
11 & 7 Down Professional name of US singer Virginia Patterson Hensley, killed in a plane crash in 1963 (5,5)
12 Capital city of Madeira, named from the local
abundance of wild fennel (7)
14 Alternative name for the Gaelic language, from
the Lowland Scots for ‘Irish’ (4)
17 Brightest star in the constellation Cygnus, forming the head of the five-star asterism the Northern Cross (5)
18 Small migratory Eurasian duck of the
merganser family; Mergus albellus (4)
19 Oscar-winning English director of the 1968
musical Oliver! (5,4)
21 Slender iron-tipped African spear traditionally made from the wood of the tree Curtisia dentata (7)
22 Any small edible flatfish of the genus Citharichthys, occurring in Pacific coastal waters of America (4,3)
25 Production or development of an ovum from
germ cells in the ovary (9)
27 ’To suckle fools and chronicle small ___’
(Shakespeare Othello act 2, sc. 1) (4)
28 Extensive treeless grassy plain, especially in
northern regions of South America (5)
29 King of Mercia from 757–796, who constructed a series of earthworks to mark the boundary between England and Wales (4)
31 Lute-like medieval forerunner of the guitar, mentioned multiple times by Chaucer in his Canterbury Tales (7)
33 Inflammatory condition of the larynx in children, causing coughs and difficulty in breathing (5)
36 Large long-legged dog breed used for hunting deer by sight or scent, now chiefly found in the US (9)
37 National sport of Thailand, known as ‘the Art of
Eight Limbs’ (4,4)
38 English author whose works include The Good
Companions (novel, 1929) and An Inspector
Calls (play, 1945) (1,1,9)
39 & 23 DownEnglish mathematician (1815-64) whose eponymous form of algebra was fundamental to the development of modern computer circuits (6,5)
DOWN
1 Great circle of the celestial sphere representing the apparent orbit of the sun, inclined at 23.45° to the celestial equator (8)
2 Leonhard ___ (1501-66), German botanist from
whom a purplish shade of red gets its name (5)
3 Former currency unit of Croatia worth one hundredth of a kuna, which was replaced in 2023 by the euro (4)
4 In ballet, a lowering of the body by bending the
knee of the supporting leg; French, ‘melted’ (5)
5 Alexander ___, Russian-born French chess player who was world champion from 1927 to 1935 and 1937 to 1946 (8)
6 US actress awarded an honorary Oscar in 2024
for her ‘transcendent performances’ (6,7)
7 See 11 Across
8 US singer-songwriter whose hits include ‘What You Waiting For?’ (2004) and ‘Wind It
Up’ (2006) (4,7)
13 & 16 Down English singer and musician who fronted the rock band Slade from 1966 to 1992 (5,6)
15 Migratory black-and-white bird of Greenland and Norway that commonly winters in NW Britain; Branta leucopsis (8,5)
16 See 13
18 Country that became the 32nd member state of
NATO on March 7, 2024 (6)
20 Prose satire, published in 1704, considered the first major work by Irish writer Jonathan Swift (1,4,2,1,3)
23 See 39 Across
24 French general in the reign of Louis XIV whose name has become synonymous with strict military discipline (8)
26 European plant of coastal regions (Crithmum maritimum) or marshland (Salicornia europaea) whose fleshy leaves and stalks respectively are eaten as vegetables (8)
30 ’___ is a short madness’ (Horace Epistles bk. 1,
no. 2, l. 62) (5)
32 Card game for two to six people in which
players may lay off whilst assembling melds (5)
34 Proportional relationship between two quantities, determined by dividing an antecedent by a consequent (5)
35 Imperial dynasty of China (618–907) whose
founder and first emperor was Gaozu (4)