Crossword clue help please

Tom Haythornthwaite · March 10, 2021, 14:16

Today's Toronto Globe and Mail crossword has this clue:

"Narrow gauge train set spread out" - 8 letters.

I have these three letters:

S - R A - - - -

"RA" could be the beginning of "RAIL" but I don't see how that fits anything.

Can anybody help (today!)?

andy1878 · March 10, 2021, 14:37

As S R & A appear in trainset I suspect it's an anagram.

Straiten?

Tom Haythornthwaite · March 10, 2021, 14:56

Andy,

I'm sure you're right. Thank you!

clayliner · March 10, 2021, 15:16

But why narrow gauge? - any trainset would do!

Is straiten a word? - I guess so, as in straitened circumstances, though I can't think of any other common usage. Straighten is the common version.

The origin made me wonder about other languages - etroite (Fr) or estrecha (Sp) but neither of those fits - I don't know any Canadian!

David.

Tom Haythornthwaite · March 10, 2021, 15:41

Apparently, 'straiten' means to make or become narrow. (I did not know this an hour ago, but it helps to explains marine straits too.)

Perhaps I should have said that the Toronto paper gets the puzzles from some British setter - not a Canadian.

JulienW · March 10, 2021, 15:44

Might be an Irish Setter, or an English Setter

woof

Graeme Dunbar · March 10, 2021, 17:59

Quote from: clayliner on March 10, 2021, 15:16

But why narrow gauge? - any trainset would do!

Those were my thoughts. I did wonder if it was cryptic 'code' for the letters NG in which case it might be part of an ING word ending, but I can't think of a word S_RA_ING.

SCRAPING works but while a P and an I can be found, not a C.

It certainly looks like STRA _ _ _ _

STRANGER - ??? but why? (A comment on model railway enthusiasts perhaps? ;D )

clayliner · March 10, 2021, 18:08

Perhaps more to the point is why we're all puzzling over word games during the day rather than 'working' - maybe just a symptom of lockdown... :) :)

David.

andy1878 · March 10, 2021, 18:33

David makes an excellent point.

However why narrow gauge? its a clue towards the answer: narrows, strait as in, say Tacoma narrows or straits of Dover, ie a constriction.

As for spread out, not sure how but it was my pointer to an anagram, kinda confirmed with the S R A - work out the anagram and the Narrow gauge reference validates.

Back to work lads and lasses!

Graeme Dunbar · March 10, 2021, 19:48

I did make a reply and then deleted it because it is already established the third letter is an A, but it was a good suggestion anyway so I've typed it again -

STRINGER

Tom Haythornthwaite · March 11, 2021, 03:46

Like it or not, the right answer (published today) was STRAITEN. Well done, Andy. Thanks everybody - even people who thought I was doing a puzzle during working hours, which was not true in my time zone. (My only deviation from work during work hours is dreaming about OO9.)

Graeme Dunbar · March 11, 2021, 07:57

Good to be back on the straiten narrow!