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A familiar piece of a charger (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

warhorse

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

'a familiar' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both people as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe you can see a link between them that I can't see?

'piece of a charger' is the wordplay.
'piece of' becomes 'war' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'a charger' becomes 'horse' (I've seen this before).
'war'+'horse'='WARHORSE'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for warhorse that I've seen before include "something too often played" , "steed?" , "Veteran soldier" , "Belligerent" , "Old soldier" .)

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.
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