Crossword Genius

Discourage one old judge in decline (11)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

deteriorate

'decline' is the definition.
(deteriorating is a kind of declining)

'discourage one old judge' is the wordplay.
'discourage' becomes 'deter' ('deter' can be a synonym of 'discourage').
'one' becomes 'i' (Roman numeral).
'old' becomes 'o' (common abbreviation eg in OE for Old English).
'judge' becomes 'rate' (rating is a kind of judging).
'deter'+'i'+'o'+'rate'='DETERIORATE'

'in' acts as a link.

(Other definitions for deteriorate that I've seen before include "Fail" , "Gradually worsen" , "Get worse" , "Slip" , "Become slowly worse" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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