Cryptic Add-a-Letter Trivia Quiz

Answer: sentry

South is a common cryptic clue for the letter S.
A portal is a type of entry, usually a large and impressive doorway.
S + entry gives sentry, someone who stands guard, possibly at an entry.

The photo shows a sentry on duty.

Answer: beagle

Something second-rate may be called B-grade.
The kind of bird that fits to giver the answer shown in the picture is an eagle.
B + eagle gives beagle, a type of dog bred for hunting hares, now commonly used to detect prohibited substances at customs stations.

Answer: play

The cryptic clue "capital" often tells you to use the first letter of a word, so capital of Portugal indicates the letter P.
As a verb, lay can mean to place something down on a flat surface. As an adjective, lay refers to the common people, for example the members of a religious group who are not the clergy. As a noun, it may be used to describe the kind of songs and poems performed by medieval troubadours.
Putting them together, P + lay gives play, which can refer to a dramatic production on the stage, or to any of a range of activities that provide entertainment.

The photo shows an 1813 etching by Thomas Rowlandson of a performance at the theatre in Scarborough.

Answer: close

A hundred is a standard cryptic clue for the letter C, which is the Roman numeral for 100.
Those who do not win may be said to lose (or tie, but let's keep it dichotomous).
Putting them together, C + lose gives close. When it is not possible to use some route of travel, authorities will close the road (bridge, footpath, doorway, etc.) and indicate it with some physical barrier that prevents passage.

The picture shows a blocked bridge, with part of a Bridge Closed sign at the edge.

Answer: want

This time the order is reversed, with the full definition at the start, and the letter at the end.
There are many types of shirt, but the one-letter one we want is a tee-shirt, or T.
A three-letter word meaning pale is wan.
Putting them together, wan + T gives want.

The photo shows a drawing of a tee-shirt, which is not only the easiest of the three parts to suggest pictorially, but also possibly the most important one to identify as you grapple with the clue.

Answer: board

An adult male pig is a boar.
The cryptic clue signal "end" usually means you need to use the last letter of a word, so it suggests D, the last letter of the preceding word. (Did you spend time trying to use the signal "bad", for an anagram, to use the letters of "end" somehow? I did; it doesn't work.)
Some lodging houses offer room and board, meaning that you get a room to sleep in, and at least one meal a day is provided.

The photo shows some floorboards.

Answer: wend

The cryptic clue "west" or "western" often refers to the letter W.
A terminus is the place where something stops. It is used, for example, to describe the last stop on a bus or train line, where the conveyance stops before starting to travel in the opposite direction - the end of the line.
Putting them together gives W + end, or wend. A word now seen mostly in crossword puzzles, the verb wend describes the process of taking a winding, meandering path, and may be applied to a road or a river or just someone wandering across an open area.

The picture shows a wending stream approaching a weir.

Answer: prose

First person is a cryptic clue for the letter P, the first letter of the word person.
There are lots of flowers whose names have four letters, so the photo was chosen to help players narrow the field down to a rose.
Putting them together, P + rose = prose, which describes a non-metrical piece of writing. In other words, it is language resembling ordinary speech, not poetry.

Answer: town

The word north is a cryptic clue for the letter N.
The word pull must define a three-letter word, and both tug and tow come to mind. The photo of a tow truck was selected to guide players towards the latter word.
Putting them together, tow + N gives town, a settlement larger than a village and smaller than a city. The technical definition of what constitutes a town varies widely around the world, sometimes being based on population, area, form of government, or other criteria.

Answer: islanders

The word one is often a cryptic clue for the letter I.
Saying bad things about someone or something can be described by several different terms, some with specific legal meaning and some more commonplace. The act of slander is making false and detrimental statements about someone, which could loosely be described as bad things. (Don't consider suing for slander, however, if the bad thing that hurts your feelings or damages your reputation happens to be true!)
Putting them together gives I + slanders, or islanders. Islanders are people who live on islands, and Hawaiians often refer to themselves as islanders, in contrast to the tourists who visit.

The photo shows a poster from the 1938 film 'Slander House', following the romantic intrigues of the patrons of a beauty salon.