Detective signalled and drove away

The answer to “Detective signalled and drove away” in the The Telegraph Cryptic crossword is DISPELLED — a 9-letter word. It most recently appeared in the The Telegraph Cryptic crossword on August 7, 2026, a Friday puzzle, at 3-Down. Below you'll find why that fill fits, every other answer we've recorded for this clue, and links into the puzzle it came from.

“Detective signalled and drove away” answer

DISPELLED (9 letters)

Reveal the solution one letter at a time with the tiles above if you'd rather nudge yourself toward it than see the whole word at once. Just want it outright? The answer is DISPELLED.

What does DISPELLED mean?

Reading the plain dictionary sense of DISPELLED is often the fastest way to see why it answers this clue.

When else has “Detective signalled and drove away” appeared?

The Telegraph Cryptic reuses clues across dates, sometimes with a different answer depending on the grid. Here's where this exact clue has shown up, and what the answer was each time — handy when you're checking whether today's fill is the only one.

August 7, 2026 (most recent) → DISPELLED. We haven't indexed another appearance of this exact clue yet.

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