Crossword Genius

Tortured character has passion to steal back female (10)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

heathcliff

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

'passion to steal back female' is the wordplay.
'passion' becomes 'heat' (synonyms).
'to steal back' becomes 'hclif' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'female' becomes 'f' (common abbreviation).
'heat'+'hclif'+'f'='HEATHCLIFF'

'has' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for heathcliff that I've seen before include "tortured character" , "character in novel" , "He loved Cathy Earnshaw" , "Hero of Wuthering Heights" .)

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