| HASTEMAKESWASTE | Fleet's resources squandered, in the rhyming adage |
| LITE | First word in the rhyming name of a peg toy |
| CHECK | "___ yourself before you wreck yourself" (rhyming adage) |
| HISTORICAL | With oil I squandered in relation to the past (10) |
| EKES | Odd bits squandered in feckless stretches |
| VIE | Half of capital squandered in contest |
| SLOTMACHINES | Coins Thelma's squandered ... in these? |
| BIGLEAD | It may get squandered in a game |
| III | The third ... or a hint to the rhyming ends of every Across answer |
| BRUH | 'The'-rhyming dude |
| FEBRUARYSTARS | Foo Fighters song with the rhyming lyric "temporary scars" |
| OVERTHEMOON | Highly delighted, like the rhyming cow? (4,3,4) |
| WEEN | Alt-rock band whose name is the rhyming surname of members Gene and Dean |
| LEPANTO | Port in Greece between the Gulfs of Corinth and Patras that was the scene of a 1571 naval battle in which the Turkish fleet was defeated by the fleets of the Holy League |
| LITUP | In 1937 broadcaster Lt.-Commander Thomas Woodroofe didn't mean to impugn the sobriety of the Navy when he said, "At the present moment, the whole Fleet's ..." (3,2) |
| LIT | In 1937 broadcaster Lt-Commander Thomas Woodroofe didn't mean to impugn the sobriety of the Navy when he said, "At the present moment, the whole Fleet's ... up" |
| JUTLAND | Which peninsula of Northern Europe was the site of a naval battle in 1916 between the British and German fleets? (7) |
| SPANISHARMADA | Great fleet defeated in the Channel by English fleets in 1588 (7,6) |
| LERWICK | Founded as an unofficial marketplace for Dutch herring fleets in the 17th century, Shetland's capital (7) |
| TRAFALGAR | Naval battle (1805), where the Royal Navy defeated the French and Spanish fleets (9) |
