Crossword Genius

Fools with Southern judge (6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

assess

'judge' is the definition.
(to assess is to judge or rate)

'fools with southern' is the wordplay.
'fools' becomes 'asses' (ass can mean a foolish person).
'with' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'southern' becomes 's' (abbreviation).
'asses'+'s'='ASSESS'

(Other definitions for assess that I've seen before include "Estimate value (for tax)" , "Evaluate worth" , "Judge the quality of" , "Estimate the worth or quality of" , "price" .)

I've seen this clue in The Daily Express.
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