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?!’’