Crossword Genius

Dog’s tense and gruff (4)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

curt

'gruff' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'dog's tense' is the wordplay.
'dog' becomes 'cur' (cur is a kind of dog).
'tense' becomes 't' (abbreviation used in many dictionaries).
'cur'+'t'='CURT'

'and' is the link.

(Other definitions for curt that I've seen before include "Rudely brief" , "Discourteously brief" , "Brief and terse" , "Brusquely succinct" , "Brief and brusque" .)

I've seen this clue in The Hindu.
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