Minute Cryptic: “Handful of Diamonds Put Down the Drain”

The Clue

Handful of diamonds put down the drain

This clue is built to make you picture a small quantity of gemstones slipping into plumbing. That vivid surface reading is the misdirection: it sounds like a miniature disaster, not a word puzzle.

Cracking the Secret Code

Step 1: Find the definition

The definition is “down the drain”. In everyday language, something that goes down the drain is FLUSH.

Step 2: Identify the fodder

The phrase “handful of diamonds” supplies the key material. In card terminology, diamonds are represented by ♦, and a handful suggests a small selection rather than every possible diamond.

Step 3: Apply the indicator

“Put down” acts as the manipulation signal. It tells you to place the selected diamond symbols in sequence, converting the visual card idea into the wordplay’s intended result.

Step 4: Confirm the answer

The definition and the wordplay converge on FLUSH: a flush is a card hand made from one suit, including diamonds, and it also describes the action suggested by something going down the drain.

The Aha! Moment

The clue works because its two readings pull in opposite directions. The surface makes “handful of diamonds” sound literal, while the cryptic reading treats diamonds as card-suit information. Once “put down” is recognized as the instruction and “down the drain” as the definition, the secret code resolves cleanly.

The final answer is FLUSH.