Crossword Genius

Still locked, editor's holding up a French competition anyone can enter (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

unopened

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

'competition anyone can enter' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this defines the answer.

'still locked editor's holding up a french' is the wordplay.
'still' becomes 'open' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'locked' means one lot of letters goes inside another (I've seen this in other clues).
'editor' becomes 'ed' (abbreviation).
'holding up' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other) (some letters go underneath or hold up others).
'a french' becomes 'un' ('a' in French).
'ed' after 'un' is 'uned'.
'open' placed into 'uned' is 'UNOPENED'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for unopened that I've seen before include "Still closed" , "Remaining closed" , "barred" , "Having held onto seal" , "Remaining sealed" .)

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.