Awful dire month started to be denounced (7)

I believe the answer is:

decried

'denounced' is the definition.
(decrying is a kind of denouncing)

'awful dire month started' is the wordplay.
'awful' indicates anagramming the letters.
'month' becomes 'dec' (abbreviation for December).
'started' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'dire' anagrammed gives 'ried'.
'ried' put after 'dec' is 'DECRIED'.

'to be' acts as a link.

(Another definition for decried that I've seen is " Publicly denounced".)

I've seen this clue in The Daily Express.

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