Crossword Genius

Formidable female has uniform in wash (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

herculean

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'formidable' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'female has uniform in wash' is the wordplay.
'female has' becomes 'her' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'uniform' becomes 'U' (phonetic alphabet: alpha, bravo, charlie etc.).
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'wash' becomes 'clean' (I've seen this before).
'u' put within 'clean' is 'culean'.
'her'+'culean'='HERCULEAN'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for herculean that I've seen before include "Old Labour" , "Enormously demanding (task)" , "Monumental (task)" , "Requiring very great effort" , "Showing great strength" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times and The Sunday Times.
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