| POPPET | A sound favourite, darling |
| MOPPET | Clean up on the favourite, darling! (6) |
| MINION | Word originally for a darling, lady-love or a king/prince's favourite, later degenerating to henchperson, kept man/woman, servant, sycophantic follower or underling (6) |
| DONALD | Professor a Liberal Democrat darling, embracing onset of war and becoming a statesman (6,5) |
| PHONEY | Quietly, darling - it's a fraud! (6) |
| ALCOVE | A darling getting cold in nook (6) |
| CHERUB | Her cub could be a little darling (6) |
| CLOVER | Plant a bit of cactus, darling (6) |
| GLINDA | Having abandoned Romeo out of hand, darling is a good witch (6) |
| WILSON | Sir Angus -, author of The Old Men at the Zoo and short story collections including A Bit Off the Map and Such Darling Dodos (6) |
| LARKIN | Principal family in H E Bates's novel whose title cites a Shakespeare sonnet: "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? / Thou art more lovely and more temperate: / Rough winds do shake the darling bud |
| CHANGE | Turn both taps, darling, then scrub back (6) |
| DARING | Darling, left out, becomes reckless (6) |
| DEARTH | Darling, the endless scarcity! (6) |
| MELONS | Darling models new strange fruit (8,6) |
| ENDEAR | Make beloved say, "what comes after M darling?" (6) |
| SYDNEY | Darling Harbour is by this city's centre (6) |
| SEETHE | Boil as darling wife is out with man (6) |
| PALLET | Bed where darling tucks everyone in (6) |
| MINNOW | Darling (6) |
