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Females are not soft-hearted dopes! (4)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

does

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'females' is the definition.
(female deer)

'not soft-hearted dopes' is the wordplay.
'not soft' becomes 'doe' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'hearted' indicates the central letters.
'dopes' becomes 'grasses' ('grass' can be a synonym of 'dope').
The middle letter of 'grasses' is 's'.
'doe'+'s'='DOES'

'are' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for does that I've seen before include "Acts" , "is active" , "herbivores" , "about 50% of deer" , "Suffices" .)

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