NG 518

New game 518 is now available.


Round 1: N K T G E C U Z I

I had GENT and TUCKING.

The other seven is KUNZITE ("a transparent lilac variety of spodumene, used as as gem").  It actually looks quite nice (not that you'd know it from that wikipedia page); for instance see the picture here, or just do an image search.  The six in this mix is CUEING.

My selection: TUCKING


Round 2: A L O S T F A L E

I had ALSO, FLOATS, AFLOAT, knew from episode 365 that FLOATELS was not valid, and FOLATES.  I also noted the near-nines of ALLOCATES and FLOATABLE.

So FOLATES is the only seven, and the best to be done.

My selection: FOLATES


Round 3: Target 840 from 75 2 4 3 8 10

I noted the factorisation 8*105, and turned that fairly directly into the solution 840 = (75 + 3*10)*8.

My selection: 840 = (75 + 3*10)*8


Round 4: U C M E E S P A R

I had SCUM, SPUME ("foam; froth; scum"), CAMPUS, CAMPERS / SCAMPER, AMPERES, and PRESUME.

Seven is again the limit, with the others being MEASURE, SUPREME, ESCAPER, APERÇUS (APERÇU: "a perception or intuitive understanding"), AMERCES (AMERCE: "to punish by inflicting a discretionary penalty of any kind") / RACEMES (RACEME: "a simple indeterminate inflorescence in which the flower are borne on short pedicels lying along a common axis, as in the lily-of-the-valley"), and CESURAE*.

My selection: CAMPERS


Round 5: H B T R D O I Q I

I had BROTH / THROB, ORBIT, IDIOT, THIRD, and ORIBI (a type of antelope).

Five is the best to be done, which is not too surprising.  The others are BIRTH, DROIT ("a legal right or claim"), TORII ("a form of decorative gateway or portal in Japan"), DHOBI ("South Asian English someone employed to do washing") / BODHI ("the awakening that is achieved by a buddha; enlightenment"), DHOTI ("a traditional Indian garment for the lower part of the body [...]"), and OBIIT ("he or she died").

My selection: BROTH


Round 6: Target 168 from 100 25 4 4 1 7

168 is the number of hours in a week, so of course I made this as 24*7 with 168 = (25 - 1)*7.

My selection: 168 = (25 - 1)*7


Round 7: R E D S O I N O D

I had REDS, EROSION, INDOORS, and INDORSED.

The other eight is ODORISED.  The other sevens are ODORISE / OROIDES (OROIDE: "an alloy containing copper, tin, etc., used to imitate gold"), INDORSE / ROSINED, NODDERS, NODDIES (NODDIE: "NZ Railways a four-wheeled barrow or small wagon for passenger luggage"), SORDINO (a mute, in the sense of "a mechanical device [...] for muffling the tone of a musical instrument"), SNOODED (SNOOD as a verb: "to bind or confine (the hair) with a snood"), and DOODIES (a bit unexpectedly (to me), DOODIE is listed as colloquial for a pipe, with the etymology going via DUDEEN).

My selection: INDORSED


Round 8: Target 751 from 25 7 6 5 4 9

The obvious start was 5*6*25 = 750, but the remaining 4, 7, 9 did not lend themselves directly to making the one.  However, I spotted that 4*9 - 7*5 = 1, and so a tweak was possible: 751 = 5*(6*25 - 7) + 4*9.

My selection: 751 = 5*(6*25 - 7) + 4*9


Round 9: NAKED SHOW

I chose this conundrum explicitly; not sure why it came to mind.

My selection: [N/A -- conundrum chosen explicitly]
Best: SHAKEDOWN