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    Beheading and Curtailing

    Beheading and Curtailing was a popular word game in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The puzzle in this post is from the December 1920 issue of St. Nicholas Magazine. Want to give it a try?

    • The rules are fairly simple. You are given two definitions. The first definition refers to the word you must behead and curtail by removing a specified number of letters from the beginning and end. The second definition should match the word remaining once the initial word is beheaded and curtailed. This puzzle is a "triple" beheading and curtailing, so you have to remove three letters from the beginning and end of each word. If you're completely confused, check out the example at the beginning of the image. How many of these can you figure out?

    • Note that this puzzle was created by a 15 year old girl.