Crossword Genius

Complaint about the French is pathetic (6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

feeble

'pathetic' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'complaint about the french' is the wordplay.
'complaint' becomes 'beef' (I've seen this before**).
'about' is a reversal indicator.
'the french' becomes 'le'.
'beef' backwards is 'feeb'.
'feeb'+'le'='FEEBLE'

'is' is the link.

(Other definitions for feeble that I've seen before include "Weak or Fragile" , "Very weak, without strength" , "Weak or ineffective" , "Weak, debilitated" , "rather weak" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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