Crossword Genius

Old desire curtailed by article on taste (4,2,3,5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

long in the tooth

'old' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'desire curtailed by article on taste' is the wordplay.
'desire' becomes 'longing' (longing is a kind of desire).
'curtailed' means to remove the last letter.
'by' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'article on' becomes 'the' (the 'definite article' part of speech. I am not sure about the 'on' bit.**).
'taste' becomes 'tooth' (I've seen this before).
'longing' with its final letter removed is 'longin'.
'longin'+'the'+'tooth'='LONG IN THE TOOTH'

(Other definitions for long in the tooth that I've seen before include "ancient?" , "Are vampires so" , "Was Dracula so" , "like smilodon?" , "spring chicken? No!" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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