Crossword Genius

Consider director in prison before end of sentence (5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

judge

'consider' is the definition.
(I know that consider is a more specific form of the action consider)

'director in prison before end of sentence' is the wordplay.
'director' becomes 'd' (abbreviation eg in film reviews).
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'prison' becomes 'jug' (slang term).
'before' says to put letters next to each other.
'end of' says to take the final letters.
The last letter of 'sentence' is 'e'.
'd' put inside 'jug' is 'judg'.
'judg'+'e'='JUDGE'

(Other definitions for judge that I've seen before include "Reckon" , "Decide a legal case" , "Magistrate" , "Arbitrator" , "rule" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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.