Spring into these verses

Check your readiness for spring words with riddles! This is the season for new sounds and growth. Watch for words that sound the same (homonymns, as in 'soar' and 'sore') and for words that stretch like 'spare' to 'sparrow.'

1. It's what we do to a barn-to-be, A way to handle a family; With "in" it's just a grape that's dry; The warming beams that come sky-high.

2. This toad is still, It cannot spring; On me you'd sit To milk and sing.

3. I'm a drizzly fog Adrift from sea; One that is pined; A shot that's awry.

4. A coin I can be; A dog's only clue; With "ab" I mean "gone"; A letter long due.

5. With "in" at the end, I'm a bird with a song; With "ber" I'm a thief; A name that's not wrong.

6. To a blanket, you do it; You throw in a hand; A mare that gave birth On spring pasture land.

7. I'm a season for hope; A bed coil that bounds; A place for your thirst, Right in the ground.

8. Alone I'm a hop, On one foot I can land; With "per" I'm a sailor, A ship's my command.

9. With "us," I'm a flower, First, sweet, and low; A deep, harsh grunt A frog would know.

ANSWERS (1) raise, raisin, and rays; (2) (toad)stool, stool; (3) mist, missed; (4) cent, scent, absent, and sent; (5) robin, robber, and Rob; (6) fold, foaled; (7) spring; (8) skip, skipper; (9) crocus, croak.