Crossword Genius

Fair game? Not quite (4)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

even

'fair' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'game? not quite' is the wordplay.
'game?' becomes 'event' (game is a kind of event).
'not quite' means to remove the last letter.
'event' with its final letter taken away is 'EVEN'.

(Other definitions for even that I've seen before include "Unvarying" , "Level, par" , "Going so far as to" , "time of day" , "end of the day, reading poetry" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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