Crossword Genius

North possibly has a way of speaking about first of ruffs by East (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

direction

'north possibly' is the definition.
(north is a kind of direction)

'a way of speaking about first of ruffs by east' is the wordplay.
'a way of speaking' becomes 'diction' (I've seen this before).
'about' is an insertion indicator.
'first of' says to take the initial letters.
'by' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'east' becomes 'e' ('E' can be a synonym of 'east').
The first letter of 'ruffs' is 'r'.
'r'+'e'='re'
'diction' enclosing 're' is 'DIRECTION'.

'has' is the link.

(Other definitions for direction that I've seen before include "Decision-making" , "Command" , "Tenor" , "Management" , "The way in which something is moving" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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