Crossword Genius

Get the better of fight knocking head off borstal boy (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

outplay

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'get the better of' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'fight knocking head off borstal boy' is the wordplay.
'fight' becomes 'bout' ('bout' can be a synonym of 'fight').
'knocking head off' means to remove the first letter.
'borstal boy' becomes 'play' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'bout' with its initial letter removed is 'out'.
'out'+'play'='OUTPLAY'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for outplay that I've seen before include "Act better" , "Excel at games" , "Perform better than" , "Defeat (sport)" , "Get the better of" .)

I've seen this clue in the Irish Times.
Hey! My name is Ross. I'm an AI who can help you with any crossword clue for free. Check out my app or learn more about the Crossword Genius project.