Belittle group of thieves — one wonderful to hear of (9)

I believe the answer is:

denigrate

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'belittle' is the definition.
(I know that belittle is a kind of belittle)

'group of thieves one wonderful to hear of' is the wordplay.
'group of thieves' becomes 'deni' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'one wonderful' becomes 'great' (I've seen this before).
'to hear of' indicates a 'sounds like' (homophone) clue (I've seen 'hear' mean this).
'great' sounds like 'grate'.
'deni'+'grate'='DENIGRATE'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for denigrate that I've seen before include "Disparage" , "Slight" , "Blacken" , "Run down" , "Bad-mouth" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.

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