About a lake getting reduced, thanks to former city (8)
I believe the answer is:
calcutta
'city' is the definition.
(Calcutta is an example)
'about a lake getting reduced thanks to former' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'about' could be 'ca' (short for circa) and 'ca' is located in the answer.
'a' is present in the answer.
'lake' could be 'l' (geographical abbreviation) and 'l' is located in the answer.
'reduced' could be 'cut' (similar in meaning) and 'cut' is present in the answer.
A single letter 't' remains which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for calcutta that I've seen before include "Indian city-port, once had notorious Black Hole" , "Old name for an Indian city" , "Indian city where Mother Teresa worked" , "A cult act in Kolkata, in former days" , "Indian port" .)