Crossword Genius

Rat to go off with puss catching nothing (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

turncoat

'rat' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'go off with puss catching nothing' is the wordplay.
'go off' becomes 'turn' (I've seen this before**).
'with' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'puss' becomes 'cat' (I've seen this in other clues).
'catching' is an insertion indicator.
'nothing' becomes 'o' (looks like zero - 0).
'cat' going around 'o' is 'coat'.
'turn'+'coat'='TURNCOAT'

'to' acts as a link.

(Other definitions for turncoat that I've seen before include "'Renegade, traitor (8)'" , "Actor nut may be a traitor" , "Deserter to opposition" , "Traitor with inverted garment" , "Traitor with reversed garment" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.
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