Crossword Genius

Lose heart of French gent hugging secretary (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

despair

'lose heart' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'of french gent hugging secretary' is the wordplay.
'of french' becomes 'de'.
'gent' becomes 'sir'.
'hugging' indicates putting letters inside.
'secretary' becomes 'pa' (I've seen this in other clues).
'sir' placed around 'pa' is 'spair'.
'de'+'spair'='DESPAIR'

(Other definitions for despair that I've seen before include "Complete loss of hope" , "Total loss of hope" , "A spider (anag.)" , "An unhappy state" , "Praised (anag) - lose hope" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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