Counter a graduate’s short, cross word (6)
I believe the answer is:
abacus
'counter' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'a graduate's short cross word' is the wordplay.
'graduate' becomes 'ba'.
'short' suggests taking the first letters.
'word' becomes 'us' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
The initial letter of 'cross' is 'c'.
'a'+'ba'+'c'+'us'='ABACUS'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for abacus that I've seen before include "As a cub (anag)" , "this adds up" , "It will support the architrave" , "Early counting-frame" , "that one can count on" .)