Solution: Gave up the ghost - NYT Crossword

I really adored this screw-up, and I’ll be surprised if it doesn’t prevent the happy music for some of you. I had “aver” at 51D, a perfectly appropriate answer for “Maintain,” so with crosses I got to “creaked” in this spot. This also seemed apropos to me — isn’t a squealing floorboard or opening door a classic tip-off to supernatural forces, in a movie or book? That must be what Messrs. Mahnken and Steinberg mean by “Gave up the ghost,” I figured. How clever of them. Of course, it’s actually CROAKED, a respectful and poetic term for “died,” which is how ghosts get free of their physical trappings.