Crossword Genius

Extremely annoyed after soldier captures the heart of confessed bacchante (6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

maenad

'bacchante' is the definition.
(both could refer to a follower of Bacchus)

'extremely annoyed after soldier captures the heart of confessed' is the wordplay.
'extremely' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters).
'after' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'soldier' becomes 'man' (I've seen this before**).
'captures' is an insertion indicator.
'the heart of' means to look at the middle letters.
'annoyed' with its centre removed is 'ad'.
The central letter of 'confessed' is 'e'.
'man' placed around 'e' is 'maen'.
'ad' put after 'maen' is 'MAENAD'.

(Other definitions for maenad that I've seen before include "Woman possessed" , "Frenzied female" , "A raging woman, once a follower or Dionysus" , "woman in a frenzy" , "Wild woman follower of Dionysus" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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