Container indicator
nurse
“nurse” is a container indicator in cryptic crosswords.
One piece of wordplay is wrapped around or inserted into another. Containers use the imagery of holding, enclosing, or swallowing.
- Clue types
- Container
- Forms
- nurses, nursing
- Subtlety
- subtle
- Part of speech
- verb, participle
- Themes
- containment
“Spirit nursing a riff — a beast of legend (7)”
Answer: GRIFFIN
Container clue. Definition: "a beast of legend" = GRIFFIN (a mythical winged creature). Wordplay: GIN ("spirit") nursing/containing RIFF ("a riff") → G-RIFF-IN = GRIFFIN. The indicator "nursing" is buried as the natural image of a spirit (ghost / glass of gin) cradling a guitar riff, and the dashed apposition presents the definition without a seam word or comma-glue.
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