Crossword Genius

Abusing dog whistle? (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

cursing

'abusing' is the definition.
(cursing is a kind of abusing)

'dog whistle?' is the wordplay.
'dog' becomes 'cur' (I've seen this before).
'whistle?' becomes 'sing' ('sing' can be a synonym of 'whistle').
'cur'+'sing'='CURSING'

(Another definition for cursing that I've seen is " Using bad language".)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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