| GHARIAL | Reptile or fish biting hard is also large, originally (7) |
| SWAHILI | Howl biting hard into middle of lopsided tongue (7) |
| SERPENT | Limbless reptile (or treacherous person (7) |
| AMNIOTE | A setter gets into trouble with, say, a mammal, reptile or a bird (7) |
| FIGLEAF | Terrible gaffe involved one - also large cover for embarrassment (3,4) |
| PANTHER | Leopard without spots, one breathing heavily, biting hard |
| ECDYSIS | Periodic shedding of old skin in reptiles or the outer cuticle in insects and other arthropods (7) |
| THOUGH | Even if hard, biting hard (6) |
| COLDFEET | Loss of guts from fish biting large parts of line (4,4) |
| STUMPED | Son getting punched, not hard, is floored (7) |
| WIT | "Irreverence is easy--what's hard is __": Tom Lehrer |
| BARBELLS | Fish biting line? They're weighty things to lift |
| CHURCHILL | Dog biting hard cold wartime leader (9) |
| WHIPPERSNAPPER | Cat fish biting a cheeky young chap (14) |
| CORD | Sea fish biting end of angler's line (4) |
| ROMANCANDLE | What spectacularly sparks love affair and also large splits |
| APHELION | Parrot biting hard — cat finds point in orbit |
| TOOLS | Saw and screwdriver needed, also large spanner to begin with (5) |
| BLOW | To breathe hard is a disappointment (4) |
| RADISH | Just how hard is this edible plant? (6) |
