Crossword Genius

Dogs crowd round headless corpse (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

mastiffs

'dogs' is the definition.
(mastiff is a kind of dog)

'crowd round headless corpse' is the wordplay.
'crowd' becomes 'mass' (massing is a kind of crowding**).
'round' is an insertion indicator.
'headless' means to remove the first letter.
'corpse' becomes 'stiff' ('stiff' can be a synonym of 'corpse').
'stiff' with its first letter taken off is 'tiff'.
'mass' going around 'tiff' is 'MASTIFFS'.

(Other definitions for mastiffs that I've seen before include "man's best friends?" , "Powerful deep-chested dogs" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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