Cold, unpleasant men client suffered (9)

I believe the answer is:

inclement

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'cold' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'men client suffered' is the wordplay.
'suffered' is an anagram indicator (I've seen 'suffering' mean this).
'men'+'client'='menclient'
'menclient' is an anagram of 'INCLEMENT'.

'unpleasant' acts as a link.
I am not very happy about this link. It may be part of another bit of the clue.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for inclement that I've seen before include "Unpleasantly showery" , "not fair" , "severe" , "Such harsh weather" , "Weather so awful" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.

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