Crossword Genius

Stop couple turning up to grab staff award (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

endowment

'award' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'stop couple turning up to grab staff' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'stop' could be 'end' (synonyms) and 'end' is present in the answer.
'staff' could be 'men' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'men' is found within the answer.
The remaining letters 'owt' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

(Other definitions for endowment that I've seen before include "Grant" , "Bequeathed income" , "Contract" , "source of income" , "one's landed with?" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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