NYT Crossword December 12, 2025 Answers

Across

1A Some free spots, for short 4 5A Grounds 5 10A Doesn't just talk 4 14A "You're telling me!" 10 16A Word with wet or sweat 4 17A Conspiracy theorist's accessory 10 18A "Don't leave me!," e.g. 4 19A 16 in a Sweet Sixteen 5 20A Main component of a "gutbucket," a jug band instrument 7 22A Personal records 5 25A Padlocked fasteners 5 26A Variety of orange named for a European city 8 29A What blue crabs do roughly 20 times in their lifetimes 4 30A Jobs announcement of 2010 4 31A News feed, perhaps 10 35A [Waaaaah!] 3 36A Thick confection used for cake icing 7 37A Part of a golf club 3 38A See 5-Down 10 40A Binary 4 41A Succors 4 42A Photo session workers 8 44A Ace, e.g. 5 46A Skater's braking method with the back foot positioned horizontally 5 47A Relative of a craft fair 7 50A "Duino Elegies" poet 5 53A Saves, as a digital location 4 54A Clichéd line from the side of a product package 10 58A It's cool to drink 4 59A "I haven't told you the best part ..." 10 60A Impressively accurate pass, in football slang 4 61A Floats 5 62A Give a bad hand? 4

Down

1D Stone 3 2D Vaudeville highlight 4 3D Pulitzer-winning journalist Applebaum 4 4D You might pull one out for a guest 7 5D With 38-Across, one way to sit 10 6D Feel gross 3 7D "Gross" 3 8D Playwright who wrote "You see things; and you say 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say 'Why not?'" 4 9D "Tell Mama" singer James 4 10D Rocky road ingredient? 7 11D Distinction for a classic underground work 10 12D Bind 5 13D Sticks a fork in 5 15D Part of NOW 5 21D "Fiddlesticks!" 5 23D Disney princess in New Orleans 5 24D Workshop debris 7 26D Possible need for entry 4 27D Each 4 28D Colleague who might be solutions-oriented? 10 29D Tropical plants said to bring good fortune 10 32D "That's the truth" 5 33D Kid's parent 4 34D Hagfish lookalikes 4 36D Company whose logo has a hidden arrow between its fourth and fifth letters 5 39D Performance that isn't prerecorded 7 40D Word from the Greek for "folded paper" 7 43D Butcher shop buys 5 44D Pleasing to the palate 5 45D "Buss It" rapper ___ Banks 5 48D Way 4 49D Arm of the Dept. of Labor 4 51D Part of a cabinet 4 52D French 101 verb 4 55D Whitehouse in D.C., e.g.: Abbr. 3 56D Physics unit equivalent to roughly 624 gigaelectronvolts 3 57D Thoroughly evaluate 3