The Minute Cryptic Explained

Clue

Tender letters shared by pub maid and boyfriend? (3)

Answer

BID

This puzzle was solved by OpenAI’s O3 Mini large language model using a zero-shot prompt without any context about cryptic crossword clues.

Explanation

1. “Tender” can be read as a verb meaning “to offer” (as in “tender a bid”).
2. The clue says “letters shared by pub maid and boyfriend.” If you take “pub maid” and “boyfriend,” the letters common to both are B, I, and D.
3. Thus, the three letters form the word BID – which means “tender” (in the sense of making an offer).

This explanation was generated using OpenAI’s O3 Mini large language model.