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Hello old friends
I still dabble in the occasional crossword and at present am going nuts about a clue and its parsing. The last one in a fairly tough crossie. It's an "across" clue.

Careful boyfriend about to bring up going without sex (8)
?e?i?a?e

My first candidate is "CELIBATE" = going without sex. But I can't parse it (dammit!). Surely not a 'double' - Nah!

My second is "DELICATE" = careful. Can't parse this either.

My last effort is "HESITATE" = careful (if there was a ! - but there isn't) Can't parse this either.

Losing the will to live now (lol). Am going out for an hour or so.

Any solution/parsing would be just dandy.

Hi jolan
Nice to hear from you!
DATE in DELICATE might be the boyfriend, but I don't see the rest, and CELIBATE looks like the best definition

DATE around ELIC(it) = DELICATE

Hi Chrise. Nice to see you again too. Thank you .I got as far as date too. Then stuck.

Yes drxx. I had the "date" bit but couldn't see the rest. Very well spotted. DELICATE it is.
Thank you very much.

I enjoy Phi's puzzles jolan but haven't seen much of him lately.
If you don't mind me asking, where is the one you've just finshed?

Drxx, the clue was from Saturday's 'i'. I'd heard that these crosswords are recycled, previously appearing in the 'Independent'.

As Malone said.

I Cryptic Crossword 2492

Thanks malone and shooty - I should still have the paper lying around somewhere.