Dreadful article — Times largely diminished (7)

I believe the answer is:

abysmal

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'dreadful' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)

'article times largely diminished' is the wordplay.
'article times' becomes 'aby' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'largely' means to remove the last letter (most but not all of the letters).
'diminished' becomes 'small' (synonyms).
'small' with its last letter removed is 'smal'.
'aby'+'smal'='ABYSMAL'

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(Other definitions for abysmal that I've seen before include "Shockingly bad" , "Extremely bad, appalling" , "Very bad or limitless" , "Very deeply bad" , "Unfathomable - extremely bad" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.

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