Describing system of measurement, writer with short ruse? (6)
I believe the answer is:
metric
'describing system of measurement' is the definition.
'writer with short ruse?' is the wordplay.
'writer' becomes 'me' (the person who is writing these clues).
'with' says to put letters next to each other.
'short' means to remove the last letter.
'ruse?' becomes 'trick' (I've seen this before).
'trick' with its last letter removed is 'tric'.
'me'+'tric'='METRIC'
(Other definitions for metric that I've seen before include "Relating to poetic rhythm" , "Non-Imperial system of measurement" , "Like decimal measuring system" , "Relating to the standard European system of measurement" , "Of modern measuring units" .)