Close messy garden shed outside (4) Minute Cryptic Crossword Clue
Searching for the answer to “Close messy garden shed outside (4)” in today’s Minute Cryptic Crossword? Look no further! We’ve provided the solution to help you finish the puzzle and make the most of your crossword-solving experience.
Hints
We’ve got a trio of indicators: ‘messy’ signals an anagram, ‘shed’ suggests deleting something, and ‘outside’ is a selector directing us to focus on certain letters.
Our fodder is ‘garden’ — we’ll use these letters as directed by the indicators to construct our answer.
The definition is ‘Close’, and our answer will mean 'close', but perhaps in a different way than the surface reads.
The answer to "Close messy garden shed outside (4)" is DEAR.
The clue “Close messy garden shed outside (4)” leads to the answer DEAR. In this cryptic clue, the definition is “Close”, meaning “affectionate” or “dear.” The wordplay involves finding the hidden (or “outside”) letters of the phrase “garden shed.” The indicator “outside” suggests that the answer is hidden around the edges of these words.
Taking the outer letters of “garden shed” — that is, D (from garden) and D (from shed) — doesn’t form a full word, but if we instead look within the phrase, we can see that the letters DEAR appear spanning across “garden shed”: garDEN SHED.
Minute Cryptic
A Minute Cryptic is a type of crossword puzzle that focuses on very short, often tricky clues that require quick and sharp thinking. These puzzles typically feature concise clues that challenge solvers to think outside the box and consider alternative meanings, wordplay, or indirect references.
Unlike traditional cryptic clues, which may have more detailed explanations, Minute Cryptics are designed to be solved in a very short amount of time, often making them ideal for quick bursts of mental exercise. They tend to require both a good understanding of wordplay and a high level of familiarity with common crossword conventions, but their brevity makes them a fun and engaging challenge for puzzle enthusiasts.