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Criminal meets a shady type in street or stable (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

constant

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'stable' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'criminal meets a shady type in street' is the wordplay.
'criminal' becomes 'con' (abbreviation for 'convict').
'meets' says to put letters next to each other.
'a shady type in' becomes 'ant' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'street' becomes 'st'.
'ant' put after 'st' is 'stant'.
'con'+'stant'='CONSTANT'

'or' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for constant that I've seen before include "Loyal - firm" , "exactly as before" , "Persistent and unchanging" , "Always - faithful" , "Faithful - unchanging" .)

I've seen this clue in the Irish Times and the Irish Times (Crosaire).
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