Crossword Genius

Careful providing husband with love when in depression (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

thorough

'careful' is the definition.
('thorough' can be similar in meaning to 'careful')

'husband with love when in depression' is the wordplay.
'husband' becomes 'h'.
'with' says to put letters next to each other.
'love' becomes 'o' (In tennis, 'love' means 'zero').
'when in' indicates putting letters inside.
'depression' becomes 'trough' (trough is a kind of depression**).
'h'+'o'='ho'
'ho' put within 'trough' is 'THOROUGH'.

'providing' acts as a link.

(Other definitions for thorough that I've seen before include "Doing things with great attention to detail" , "Attentive to detail" , "Assiduous, painstaking" , "Rigorous" , "'Exhaustive, complete (8)'" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.
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