| INTIMATED | Close with key, as suggested (9) |
| REFERENDA | Polls about to close with awful fear around (9) |
| LANDFALLS | Earth movements make mill close with loud complaints. (9) |
| EPILOGUES | Speeches that close with pious elegy, mostly moving (9) |
| ATTENDANT | A teetotaller close with worker that's servant (9) |
| ESCALATOR | Moving steps close with a rat about (9) |
| NIGHTCLUB | Close with tango beat where people dance |
| GOODGUESS | "You were close with that response" |
| NASHIPEAR | A ship manoeuvred in close with exotic fruit (5,4) |
| PROFFERED | A couple, in short, volunteered, as suggested (9) |
| INDICATED | At home, CIB officer acted strangely as suggested (9) |
| SOLIPSISM | Philosophical theory that the self is all that one can be certain exists, as suggested by Descartes 'famous' I think, therefore I am' (9) |
| TURDUCKEN | Entree with nested birds, as suggested by the progression of fowl in the starred answers |
| CORNERLOT | Prominent location to build on (as suggested by this puzzle?) |
| DONOTBEND | Mail instruction sometimes ignored, as suggested by the words in this puzzle's circles |
| BOTTOMROW | Last line of a spreadsheet (as suggested by the circled squares?) |
| STONEWALL | Historic inn commemorated during Pride Month, as suggested by this puzzle's border answers |
| SAYCHEESE | Photographer's request ... as suggested by this puzzle's circled letters? |
| AREALPAIN | 2024 Jesse Eisenberg-Kieran Culkin film ... as suggested by the grid's circled squares? |
| TRANSCRIBE | Rent as new, holding key as duplicate (10) |
