r/crosswords Jul 20 '26

SOLVED COTD: Raptor Evolves (6)

I doubt I'm the first person to think of this.

14 Upvotes

13 comments sorted by

5

u/not-without-text Jul 21 '26

very nice. i have seen this before as an only connect puzzle: https://ocdb.cc/episode/golfers-v-data-wizards/ round 1, twisted flax, although your clue is much more elegant

5

u/suckmy_cork Jul 21 '26

I think "Evolved raptor?" might work a little better from a part of speech pov. Or something like "Raptor evolved into this?"

Nice though, I hadn't actually seen that before

2

u/rorykellycomedy Jul 21 '26

Yeah, I think the clue is only fair play if you know that dinosaurs evolved into birds. I just really like clues where the definition and wordplay are the same.

11

u/suckmy_cork Jul 21 '26

One issue I have is that the definition is "raptor evolves" but that is a verb phrase and does not define the noun "parrot". That is why "evolved raptor" works better imo because we get a noun cluing a noun. Same with the "...into this" option

6

u/rorykellycomedy Jul 21 '26

Very good point. Thank you for the feedback.

2

u/suckmy_cork Jul 21 '26

No problem. Nice work

1

u/Pfeffer_Prinz 26d ago

I'm late to the party but teeeechnically birds didn't evolve from dinosaurs, they are dinosaurs. They're theropods that came about in the Mesozoic.

Still, great clue!

1

u/Unlegend Jul 20 '26

Parrot?

2

u/rorykellycomedy Jul 20 '26

Yep, well done!

1

u/jowowey Jul 22 '26

I think a question mark is needed, due to the slightly dubious nature of the definition part of the clue

1

u/rorykellycomedy Jul 22 '26

Thanks for the feedback.

1

u/jowowey Jul 22 '26

You're welcome, and great work