Crossword Genius

Any short trousers for protective wear (5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

apron

'protective wear' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'any short trousers for' is the wordplay.
'short' means to remove the last letter.
'trousers' means one lot of letters goes inside another (trouser can mean to steal or take).
'for' becomes 'pro' (as in being 'pro' something).
'any' with its last letter removed is 'an'.
'an' going around 'pro' is 'APRON'.

(Other definitions for apron that I've seen before include "item of protective clothing" , "Cook's protector" , "Pinny -part of the fairway leading onto the green" , "Area around aircraft hangar" , "Pinnie" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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