| PALINDROMES | Phrases like 18-, 24-, 53-, 59-Across and 4-Down |
| WEDGED | Crammed (into) ... and, when aptly hyphenated, like 18-, 24, 39-, 52- and 58-Across |
| OFFTOAGOODSTART | Beginning auspiciously ... like 18-, 24-, 46- and 55-Across? |
| TEXAS | State home to 27- Across and 4- Down |
| TREE | Thing "hugged" by 18- and 60- Across and 4- and 27- |
| IDIOMS | Everyday non-literal phrases like over the moon |
| STRIPTEASE | Burlesque act, or read phonetically, how to make phrases like five in this puzzle |
| TAKESCOVER | Shelters, or (with another space) makes phrases like five in this puzzle |
| ABCS | Learning them often includes phrases like "D is for dog" |
| ABAD | (and 14 across and 19 across and 23 across and 4 down) Proverb suggesting that a person will ascribe a mistake to their equipment rather than admit their own lack of skill (4) |
| ADZE | Tool sounds like 18 Dn (4) |
| ADDS | Tots sound like 18 Ac (4) |
| EELY | Slice from return of Kyle Edmund is like 18 (4) |
| EGGCORN | Misinterpreted phrase, like answers to asterisked clues (7) |
| OXYMORON | Self-contradicting phrase like "jumbo shrimp" |
| FOREIGN | With 42-Across, cars like BMWs and Audis ... or 18-, 24-, 53- and 63-Across |
| YOUTHFUL | Solver gets the truncated variety of flu, like 18 (8) |
| ERASED | Like 18 1/2 minutes of the Watergate tapes |
| TITULAR | Somehow rail with a click of the tongue, like 18 (7) |
| WEAK | Like 18 according to 19 in 7-day period, do we hear? |
