Crossword Genius

European rocket redirected following quiet chat (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

shmooze

'chat' is the definition.
(shmoozing is a kind of chatting)

'european rocket redirected following quiet' is the wordplay.
'european' becomes 'E' (abbreviation e.g. EU).
'rocket' becomes 'zoom' (I've seen this in another clue).
'redirected' is a reversal indicator (going in the other direction).
'following' says to put letters next to each other.
'quiet' becomes 'sh' (both can be said to tell someone to be quiet).
'e'+'zoom'='ezoom'
'ezoom' in reverse letter order is 'mooze'.
'mooze' put after 'sh' is 'SHMOOZE'.

(Other definitions for shmooze that I've seen before include "Chat intimately" , "Chat in an intimate way" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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