Deletion Indicators in Cryptic Crosswords Expulsion, Departure and Reduction

Expulsion and departure indicators direct the solver to remove one piece of text from another. An expulsion involves X (the whole) getting rid of Y (a part thereof),  the result being X-Y, as in ‘rookie drops everything’ for CALLOW – ALL = COW; a departure means Y being lost from X (the result still being X-Y), as in ‘Britain quits group’ for BAND – B = AND. This list is long but not exhaustive – in general, any term which suggests something being removed from something else is likely to be acceptable, although setters should avoid ones which are normally used only in a restricted context (eg ‘disembarks’, which relates specifically to ships). Where the indicator is a verb, other forms are possible, such as the infinitive (eg ‘right to avoid exercise’ for DRILL – R = DILL). With past participles or adjectives, the form in the wordplay will be along the lines of ‘X with Y removed’, eg ‘depressed when stripped of diamonds’ for DOWN – D = OWN. Note that a few verbs, such as ‘leave’ and ‘abandon’ can be used to indicate either expulsion or departure (‘I left the broccoli’ / ‘I left the table’). With transitive verbs indicating departure, the order of the operands can be reversed, eg ‘Place European escapes’ for SIT (SIT – E, the relative pronoun ‘that’ being implied), and the perfect tense can also be used, for this example “Place European’s escaped”; note that this does not apply to expulsion indicators, because in (say) ‘Hour fellow’s spent’ for CAP (CHAP – H) the subject is the hour and not the fellow, so the construction does not deliver a meaningful result.

Reduction indicators direct the solver to remove letters from a specific position in the target word(s) – at the start, at the end, or in the middle (eg ‘nearly finished’ for DONE without the last letter = DON); in some instances these may be appear very similar to letter selection indicators, but the important difference is that the words subject to letter selection must always appear in the clue, while the words subject to reduction will normally be indirectly indicated, as in the preceding example. Setters should be aware that some publications will not accept first letter reduction indicators that suggest decapitation.

If you are looking for indicators which can function as multiple parts of speech, typing *N (for instance) in the Search box will filter the results based on indicators which in a surface reading could function as nouns (eg ‘drops’). A special filter is *T, which will hide all indicators other than transitive verbs, so ‘expelling’ will remain but not ‘expelled by’. These ‘filter searches’ can be combined with sorts to produce, say, a list of expulsion indicators which could appear as nouns in the surface reading of a clue.

Date last modified: 25/10/25
Recent changes: (25/10/25) major revision including addition of conjunctions to passive indicators and new column showing usage examples. Also added first/last letter reduction indicators shorn, fleeced, removing coat/jacket and contents of; truncation indicators reduced, abbreviated and abridged; expulsion/departure indicators based on giving away, escaping, mislaying, discarding, covering up, parted from, cutting loose, dodging, evading, fleeing, neglecting, omitting and withholding. Removed regardless of, outing (departure only) and racing.