Crossword Genius

Tea grader outwardly shunned pretence (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

charade

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'pretence' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'tea grader outwardly' is the wordplay.
'tea' becomes 'cha' (cha is a type of tea).
'outwardly' means to look at the middle letters (only the outermost letters are used).
The central letters of 'grader' are 'rade'.
'cha'+'rade'='CHARADE'

'shunned' acts as a link.
This may not be right. It may belong to another bit of the clue.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for charade that I've seen before include "Pretence; parlour game" , "Blatant deception" , "An absurd pretence, could be a game" , "Total pretence (as in game)" , "sham" .)

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