Crossword Genius

European sides left on island reportedly tease recruits (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

enlists

'recruits' is the definition.
(enlisting is a kind of recruiting)

'european sides left on island reportedly tease' is the wordplay.
'sides' means to remove the middle letters (only the letters on the sides are used).
'left' becomes 'l' (common abbreviation).
'on' says to put letters next to each other.
'island' becomes 'is'.
'reportedly' shows a homophone (sound like).
'european' with its middle removed is 'en'.
'tease' sounds like 'ts'.
'en'+'l'+'is'+'ts'='ENLISTS'

(Other definitions for enlists that I've seen before include "Recruits" , "volunteers" , "Signs up" , "Listens (anag.)" , "Registers" .)

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.
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