Crossword Genius

Bad smell in small English boozer (6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

sponge

'boozer' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'bad smell in small english' is the wordplay.
'bad smell' becomes 'pong' (informal term).
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'small' becomes 's' (abbreviation - e.g. clothes size).
'english' becomes 'e' (abbreviation).
's'+'e'='se'
'pong' placed into 'se' is 'SPONGE'.

(Other definitions for sponge that I've seen before include "Animal that absorbs liquid" , "Piece of porous rubber" , "Sea animal often found in bath" , "Wipe" , "Scrounge; wiper" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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