Crossword Genius

Grating to clear in street before ten, unfortunately (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

strident

'grating' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'clear in street before ten unfortunately' is the wordplay.
'clear' becomes 'rid' ('rid' can be a synonym of 'clear'**).
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'street' becomes 'st'.
'before' says to put letters next to each other.
'unfortunately' indicates an anagram.
'ten' is an anagram of 'ent'.
'st'+'ent'='stent'
'rid' put within 'stent' is 'STRIDENT'.

'to' is the link.

(Other definitions for strident that I've seen before include "Shrill" , "Unpleasantly rough" , "ear-piercing" , "making a lot of noise" , "Commanding attention" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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