Unclued entries (all real words) are not thematic unless they are augmented, in each case by a letter appearing in an appropriate place in the grid. The solutions at 6, 19, 29 and 40 are confirmed in the OED.
Across
1 Marine plant-life treated as grass by duck (8)
8 Measure lack of aspiration shown by Lisa’s dad (4)
12 Thoughtful response I agonised over (10)
13 Difficulty acting to modified rhythm (6)
14 Wretched two of clubs, discard to South, the weakest constituent of pack? (7)
18 ‘Fibre’ can be obtained from this ‘brief’ (I’m sneaky) (9, hyphened)
19 Winner here has a sequence, signalling to East (9, doubly hyphened)
20 Some believe that I’m cold-blooded (4)
21 Cat has time to hide its outsides inside (4)
29 Island captured by English armed force? (4)
32 Colonial government is beset by keen student and follower of Gandhi (9)
34 Terrorise drunken reveller (9)
37 Ham succeeded with this, somehow? (8, two words)
39 Letter to the Hebrews not changing King Henry (6)
40 Son made to swim across the Channel? He prefers video games (10)
41 Long haul about to be covered by empty truck (4)
42 Two air expulsions heard by alien, virtually tame creature (8)
Down
1 Make difficult note in melody (8)
2 Academician and student married in university? (6)
3 Beetles have these good sense organs (5)
4 They could have made errant mistake about Europe initially (14)
5 Hindu almost thoughtless in significant place (7)
6 Recipe used in appropriate activity and inappropriate activity (8)
7 American guy to record space terminology? It’s a source of baloney (14, two words)
10 Nervous lasses consistently failing to be plucky? (6)
16 Bird I see abandoning shipping hazard to soar (5)
17 Dye finally runs in copper colour (4)
22 Creative man leaves suit at back of laundry (5)
23 Was taken...
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