Crossword Genius

Government’s foremost official suppressing one lot of trouble (5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

grief

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'lot of trouble' is the definition.
'grief' can be an answer for 'trouble' (I've seen this before). I'm not sure about the 'lot of' bit.

'government's foremost official suppressing one' is the wordplay.
'foremost' suggests taking the first letters.
'official' becomes 'ref' (match official in football, say).
'suppressing' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'one' becomes 'I' (Roman numeral).
The first letter of 'governments' is 'g'.
'ref' enclosing 'i' is 'rief'.
'g'+'rief'='GRIEF'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for grief that I've seen before include "Deep sadness" , "sad state" , "Great sorrow at someone's death" , "Sharp sorrow" , "Misery" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
Want a hint initially instead of a full solution? Install my app