Crossword Genius

Face losing case with old-fashioned brief (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

acquaint

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'face' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both to do with communicating as well as being verbs in their base form.
Perhaps you can see a link between them that I can't see?

'losing case with old-fashioned brief' is the wordplay.
'losing case' becomes 'act' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'with' indicates putting letters inside.
'old-fashioned' becomes 'quaint' (cutely old-fashioned).
'brief' means to remove the last letter (a shorter or briefer version of the word).
'quaint' with its final letter taken away is 'quain'.
'act' placed around 'quain' is 'ACQUAINT'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for acquaint that I've seen before include "Get familiar" , "get up to date" , "Make someone familiar with" , "brief" , "Make aware or familiar with, say the facts" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.
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