Crafty, stooping to eat seconds (9)

I believe the answer is:

designing

'crafty' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'stooping to eat seconds' is the wordplay.
'stooping' becomes 'deigning' (to deign is to stoop to something beneath oneself).
'to eat' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'seconds' becomes 's'.
'deigning' placed around 's' is 'DESIGNING'.

(Another definition for designing that I've seen is " Acting in a calculating and deceitful way".)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.

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.