Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Clues And Answers For Tuesday, July 29th

In case you missed Monday’s NYT Mini Crossword puzzle, you can find the answers here:

ForbesToday’s NYT Mini Crossword Clues And Answers For Monday, July 28thBy Erik Kain

It’s Tyr’s day, the one day of the week devoted to a Norse god almost nobody really remembers outside of fellow viking enthusiasts like your humble puzzle guide. Tyr was a god of war, similar—though distinct—to Mars in Roman mythology. It’s no wonder Romance languages like Spanish pay homage to Mars on this day of the week. I guess Tuesday is for warriors. We are word warriors. The pen is mightier than the sword, after all. Let’s use our wits to solve today’s Mini Crossword.

The NYT Mini is a smaller, quicker, more digestible, bite-sized version of the larger and more challenging NYT Crossword, and unlike its larger sibling, it’s free-to-play without a subscription to The New York Times. You can play it on the web or the app, though you’ll need the app to tackle the archive.

Spoilers ahead!

How To Solve Today’s Mini Crossword

Before we get to the answers, here’s the first letter for each word in today’s Mini.

Across

1A. ___ Escola, Tony-winning portrayer of Mary Todd Lincoln in “Oh, Mary!” – C

5A. Tear to pieces, as documents or cheese – S

6A. Gentle prod – N

7A. Enjoyed a home-cooked meal – A

8A. Sassy – P

Down

1D. Ladder’s counterpart – C

2D. Something taken by a server – O

3D. The real deal – L

4D. The garden in “The Garden of Earthly Delights” – E

5D. “___ out of it!” (“Wake up!”) – R

Okay, onto the answers! Remember, spoilers ahead!

Across

1A. ___ Escola, Tony-winning portrayer of Mary Todd Lincoln in “Oh, Mary!” – COLE

5A. Tear to pieces, as documents or cheese – SHRED

6A. Gentle prod – NUDGE

7A. Enjoyed a home-cooked meal – ATE IN

8A. Sassy – PERT

Down

1D. Ladder’s counterpart – CHUTE

2D. Something taken by a server – ORDER

3D. The real deal – LEGIT

4D. The garden in “The Garden of Earthly Delights” – EDEN

5D. “___ out of it!” (“Wake up!”) – RISE

Some of these I had a pretty strong sense of right away, like SHRED and NUDGE for 5 and 6 Across, and then SNAP for 5 Down. I was less certain about 1-Across and had to basically fill in the blanks after plugging in a couple of DOWN words like ORDER, LEGIT and EDEN. For some reason, “ladder’s counterpart” evaded me until the end. Even when I had CHUT plugged in, the word “CHUTE” just wouldn’t pop into my brain—until it finally did. I also have to admit that I’m unfamiliar with the term PERT for sassy. You learn something new every day! This one took me 1:18.

How did you do? Let me know on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.

If you also play Wordle, I write guides about that as well. You can find those and all my TV guides, reviews and much more here on my blog. Thanks for reading!