Crossword Genius

Encourage female not to lose face when interrupted by guys (6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

foment

'encourage' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'female not to lose face when interrupted by guys' is the wordplay.
'female' becomes 'f' (common abbreviation).
'to lose face' means to remove the first letter (I've seen 'losing face' mean this).
'when interrupted by' means one lot of letters goes inside another (inserted letters interrupt).
'guys' becomes 'men' (guy can mean a man).
'not' with its initial letter taken off is 'ot'.
'ot' going around 'men' is 'oment'.
'f'+'oment'='FOMENT'

(Other definitions for foment that I've seen before include "Stir up or stimulate, say trouble" , "produce a stir" , "Arouse or stimulate, perhaps trouble" , "Arouse or stimulate, maybe trouble" , "Arouse or stimulate, say trouble" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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