Barely inept, they had failed — as half-witted ex-husband and father-in-law?

The answer to “Barely inept, they had failed — as half-witted ex-husband and father-in-law?” in the The Times Cryptic crossword is HYPHENATED — a 10-letter word. It most recently appeared in the The Times Cryptic crossword on September 1, 2026, a Tuesday puzzle, at 24-Across. 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.

“Barely inept, they had failed — as half-witted ex-husband and father-in-law?” answer

HYPHENATED (10 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 HYPHENATED.

What does HYPHENATED mean?

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

When else has “Barely inept, they had failed — as half-witted ex-husband and father-in-law?” appeared?

The Times 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.

September 1, 2026 (most recent) → HYPHENATED. We haven't indexed another appearance of this exact clue yet.

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