Ceased holding tabloid: it’s come apart (9)
I believe the answer is:
disunited
'come apart' is the definition.
'ceased holding tabloid it's' is the wordplay.
'ceased' becomes 'died'.
'holding' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'tabloid' becomes 'sun' (The Sun, UK newspaper).
'it's' becomes 'it' (I've seen this in other clues**).
'sun'+'it'='sunit'
'died' enclosing 'sunit' is 'DISUNITED'.
(Another definition for disunited that I've seen is " Split".)
I've seen this clue in The Times.
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.