Crossword Genius

Finished calls avoiding outsiders on the whole (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

overall

'on the whole' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'finished calls avoiding outsiders' is the wordplay.
'finished' becomes 'over' ('over' can be similar in meaning to 'finished').
'avoiding outsiders' indicates the central letters (the letters on the outside are removed).
The middle letters of 'calls' are 'all'.
'over'+'all'='OVERALL'

(Other definitions for overall that I've seen before include "Protective coat painters put on" , "Taking account of all the factors" , "Taken as a whole" , "protector" , "On the whole - protective garment" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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