Crossword Genius

Encourage the near desperate (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

hearten

'encourage' is the definition.
(I know that hearten is a kind of encourage)

'the near desperate' is the wordplay.
'desperate' indicates an anagram (a desperate or pathetic spelling).
'the'+'near'='thenear'
'thenear' with letters rearranged gives 'HEARTEN'.

(Other definitions for hearten that I've seen before include "Comfort" , "Be encouraged" , "Inspirit" , "Make cheerful" , "Buoy" .)

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