Crossword Genius

English judge inspires fighter to leave country (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

emigrate

'leave country' is the definition.
(to emigrate is to leave one's country for another)

'english judge inspires fighter' is the wordplay.
'english' becomes 'e' (abbreviation).
'judge' becomes 'rate' (rating is a kind of judging).
'inspires' means one lot of letters goes inside another (inspire means to breathe in).
'fighter' becomes 'mig' (fighter jet produced by Russian company MiG).
'e'+'rate'='erate'
'erate' enclosing 'mig' is 'EMIGRATE'.

'to' is the link.

(Other definitions for emigrate that I've seen before include "Move abroad" , "Leave the country to settle abroad" , "Permanently leave" , "don't come back!" , "leave for ever" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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