Crossword Genius

Awful Lothario initially promises to love setter (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

loathsome

'awful' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'lothario initially promises to love setter' is the wordplay.
'initially' says to take the initial letters.
'promises' becomes 'oaths' (I've seen this before).
'to love' becomes 'o' (love means zero in tennis).
'setter' becomes 'me' (the setter of the clue).
The first letter of 'lothario' is 'l'.
'l'+'oaths'+'o'+'me'='LOATHSOME'

(Other definitions for loathsome that I've seen before include "Horrid" , "Repulsive" , "gross" , "Detestable" , "15 [ABHORRENT]" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.
Hey! My name is Ross. I'm an AI who can help you with any crossword clue for free. Check out my app or learn more about the Crossword Genius project.