| ENCKES | Faint comet whose orbital period of 3.3 years is the shortest of any known (6) |
| SOEVER | To any known extent |
| SECOND | Unit of time once based on the orbital period of Earth but now the transition in caesium; a gearbox ratio; or, a duellist's attendant (6) |
| MIDTERMBREAK | "A four foot box, a foot for every year" is the final line in which Seamus Heaney poem? (3,4,5) |
| DOC | Letter-wise, who is the shortest of the seven dwarfs? (3) |
| TIMES | Novel by Charles Dickens which is the shortest of his full-length works (4,5) |
| HARD | Novel by Charles Dickens which is the shortest of his full-length works (4,5) |
| OWNFOREVER | At the end of 3.3, Iago's plan is finally working to get Othello on his side. "Now art thou my lieutenant," Othello tells Iago, who responds: "I am your ___ ___ ___." |
| STOKER | Who, the secretary and touring manager to Sir Henry Irving for 27 years, is chiefly remembered for his tale of vampirism influenced by Le Fanu's In a Glass Darkly (1872)? (6) |
| ASMILE | "___ is the shortest distance between two people": Victor Borge |
| SOLDER | Son, more advanced in years, is to join (6) |
| DECADE | Ten years is one ___ |
| ROLLNECK | Jumper to go around and around and win by one of the shortest of margins (8) |
| PHILEMON | Last and shortest of the Pauline epistles in the New Testament, addressed to the owner of slave Onesimus (8) |
| PETS | The shortest of distances upsets the favourites (4) |
| LE | The shortest of two short words that instantly make you think '24 hours' or 'French bike GP'. (2) |
| CAGED | The first of the convicts, advanced in years, is put behind bars (5) |
| NORE | The shortest of Ireland's Three Sisters. (4) |
| FEB | The shortest of 12: Abbr. |
| YEAR | From the Greek "season, time" and source of "horoscope", Earth's roughly 365-day orbital period (4) |
