Crossword Genius

Deception accomplished as short reservation's accepted (10)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

masquerade

'deception' is the definition.
(masquerade is a kind of deception)

'accomplished as short reservation's accepted' is the wordplay.
'accomplished' becomes 'made' (making is a kind of accomplishing**).
'short' means to remove the last letter.
'reservation' becomes 'query' (both can mean a point of doubt or confusion).
'accepted' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'query' with its last letter taken away is 'quer'.
'as'+'quer'='asquer'
'made' enclosing 'asquer' is 'MASQUERADE'.

(Other definitions for masquerade that I've seen before include "Pretend to be someone one is not" , "Costume party" , "where everyone's wearing the veil" , "pose" , "Dress up" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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