Crossword Genius

Bum absolutely exhausted, no space (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

deadbeat

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

'absolutely exhausted no space' is the wordplay.
'absolutely' becomes 'dead' (synonyms).
'exhausted no space' becomes 'beat' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'dead'+'beat'='DEADBEAT'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for deadbeat that I've seen before include "idle so-and-so" , "idler" , "lazy so-and-so" , "extremely tired" , "Vagrant's" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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