NG 492

New game 492 is now available.


Round 1: E S O N P D H I T

I had NOSE, PONES (PONE: "an oval-shaped loaf or cake"), PHONES, was hoping for a final A for DIAPHONES (DIAPHONE: "all the variant forms of a phoneme that are found in the regional and social dialects of a language"), and PHONIEST.  After time I noted a seven of HISTONE (an excellent find from Sam in his Masters semifinal: "any of a class of basic proteins as globin [...]").

The other eights are HEDONIST and SIPHONED / SPHENOID ("wedge-shaped"; it also has a noun sense, as a type of bone).  There are many other sevens, of course, of which I'll just mention DEPOSIT.

My selection: PHONIEST


Round 2: O D R T E S L U I

I had TROD, STORED, SOLDIER, and OUTSIDER.

No nine to be had here; the other eights are OUTLIERS, DILUTERS, OUTRIDES, and SOLITUDE / TOLUIDES (a TOLUIDE being one of a certain class of chemicals).  Once more, there are lots of sevens.

My selection: OUTSIDER


Round 3: Target 984 from 50 5 10 8 7 4

Easy enough to get to 1000, but my first attempt to do so only got me to one away with 984 = 50*4*5 - 10 - 7.  Seen just now is that the (relatively obvious) alternative approach of 2*50*10 would have allowed a simple tweak: 984 = (7 - 5)*(50*10 - 8).  Bother.  I got hung up on trying to make the target as 7*140 + 4 or similar, and it was a long while after time before I got that to work with 984 = (5*(10 + 8) + 50)*7 + 4.

My selection: 983 = 50*4*5 - 10 - 7  [1 off]
Best: 984 = (5*(10 + 8) + 50)*7 + 4


Round 4: N A D S H U T I C

I had SAND, HANDS, DAUNTS, and NUDIST.  I'd hoped the third vowel would be an O for THOUSAND, but no joy.  After time I noted that turning the H into an O would yield CUSTODIAN, and also checked up on AUNTISH but was not surprised that it was not listed.

There is an eight in this mix: DIANTHUS, any flower in a certain genus.  The sevens are INDUCTS, DISCANT (variant spelling of DESCANT), STAUNCH / CANTHUS ("the angle or corner on each side of the eye, formed by the junction of the upper and lower lids"), and TUNDISH ("a conical or cylindrical open-topped receptable with a tube at its base, forming a funnel through which fluids are led into a larger receptable").

My selection: DAUNTS
Best: DIANTHUS


Round 5: T B A I U O S G R

I had BAIT, TUBA, ABOUT, AGOUTIS, and OUTBRAGS.

OUTBRAGS appears to be the only eight.  The other sevens are OUTBRAG, GUITARS, RAGOUTS / RAGOUST (given as a variant form of RAGOUT), OUTRIGS, SAUTOIR ("a long ribbon, chain, beaded band, or the like, worn about the neck"), TABOURS (TABOUR is a variant spelling of TABOR, which is a type of drum) / RUBATOS (maybe... RUBATO: "the technique of varying the tempo within a bar of music without either lengthening or shortening the bar"; I suspect that the sources which allow pluralisation list an alternative sense of music played with that technique), and AGISTOR (agent noun derived from AGIST: "to take in and feed or pasture (livestock) for payment").

My selection: OUTBRAGS


Round 6: Target 450 from 100 50 7 4 5 6

A sadly unchallenging target; I noted 450 = 5*100 - 50 and 450 = (5 + 4)*50.

My selection: 450 = (5 + 4)*50


Round 7: E M F I O E K Y C

I had MIKE, MICE, and MICKEY (various colloquial meanings; I was thinking of its equivalence to MICKEY FINN: "a drink, usually alcoholic, which has been surreptitiously laced so as to cause to fall asleep, to discomfort or in some way to incapacitate the person who drinks it").

MICKEY is the only six; the fives are MICKY (a name for the noisy miner) and COMFY.  YOICKS is listed as an interjection, but not YOICK.

My selection: MICKEY


Round 8: Target 354 from 100 4 5 7 9 4

Starting from 4*100 was tempting, but then the offset of 46 proved overly challenging for me.  Eventually I stumbled upon a solution using the factorisation 3*118: 354 = (100 + 9 + 5 + 4)*(7 - 4).

My selection: 354 = (100 + 9 + 5 + 4)*(7 - 4)


Round 9: QUERY LIAR

I got hung up on -LY as an ending for a while, and even after switching to -ARY it was not trivial to spot RELIQUARY ("a repository or receptable for a relic or relics").

My selection: RELIQUARY (23.3s)