Crossword Genius

Experienced a child punching others (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

seasoned

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'experienced' is the definition.
(similar in meaning)

'a child punching others' is the wordplay.
'child' becomes 'son' (male child).
'punching' means one lot of letters goes inside another (inserted letters punch or puncture others).
'others' becomes 'seed' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'a'+'son'='ason'
'ason' going within 'seed' is 'SEASONED'.

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(Other definitions for seasoned that I've seen before include "Of food, flavoured with salt, pepper etc" , "Experienced with condiments added?" , "Expert" , "Salted and peppered" , "Flavoured or hardened" .)

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