| FUSES | Safety devices a fathead employs? |
| FUSE | Safety device a fathead has to employ (4) |
| BUSES | Transport a bighead employs? (5) |
| THROWBACKS | Those two torture devices a for Spooner a they belong to bygone times (10) |
| WHIMWHAM | From reduplication and "to let the eyes wander", a word for a trinket; a ridiculous notion; an odd device; a sudden fancy or caprice; or, an 18th-century version of a trifle (4-4) |
| HANDCUFFS | Restraining devices a new police officer shows irritation about |
| BALANCES | Weighty devices a bachelor cleans badly (8) |
| EARPHONES | Listening devices a lawman perfects |
| HARROWS | Agricultural devices: a public school's? (7) |
| PROOFREADER | Principal lecturer ringing old senior lecturer, one who a publisher employs? (11) |
| BASIL | Graduates the Italian chef employs? (5) |
| REINDEER | Northern hauliers St Nicholas employs? |
| ENGINE | From the Latin meaning "talent, device", a word for cunning or genius; a weapon such as a ballista, battering ram or scorpion; or, a car's motor (6) |
| TRICK | Word for a crafty or mean device; a dexterous artifice; a prank; a habit or trait; or, an illusion (5) |
| GRIMMERGRAMMAR | What some fairy tales employ? |
| IDLEHANDS | Lazy workforce old Nick may employ? (4,5) |
| EYEHOLES | Breach in European right, such as spies might employ? |
| SCOUSE | Dialect majority of northerners employ? |
| TENFOOTPOLE | Staff you wouldn't want to employ? |
| IDIOM | Turn of phrase did I omit to employ? (5) |
