Crossword Genius

Harmful to wipe out evidence of debts? That's about right (11)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

deleterious

'harmful' is the definition.
('deleterious' can be similar in meaning to 'harmful')

'wipe out evidence of debts? that's about right' is the wordplay.
'wipe out' becomes 'delete' (I've seen this before).
'evidence of debts?' becomes 'ious' (I've seen this in other clues).
'that's about' says to put letters next to each other.
'right' becomes 'r' (common abbreviation).
'ious' put after 'r' is 'rious'.
'delete'+'rious'='DELETERIOUS'

'to' is the link.

(Other definitions for deleterious that I've seen before include "Causing harm or damage" , "Elude Tories (anag.)" , "True oilseed (anag) -- harmful" , "Bad" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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