Crossword Genius

Blue, extremely shabby clothing for dog (6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

smutty

'blue' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'extremely shabby clothing for dog' is the wordplay.
'extremely' suggests removing the centre.
'clothing for' is an insertion indicator.
'dog' becomes 'mutt' (mutt is a kind of dog**).
'shabby' with its centre removed is 'sy'.
'sy' placed around 'mutt' is 'SMUTTY'.

(Other definitions for smutty that I've seen before include "Rather rude" , "Filthy" , "Rather indecent" , "Improper" , "Blue" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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