Crossword Genius

Honed fancy phrase with surprising end (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

sharpened

'honed' is the definition.

'fancy phrase with surprising end' is the wordplay.
'fancy' is an anagram indicator.
'with' says to put letters next to each other.
'surprising' indicates anagramming the letters.
'phrase' anagrammed gives 'sharpe'.
'end' is an anagram of 'ned'.
'sharpe'+'ned'='SHARPENED'

(Another definition for sharpened that I've seen is " with a point".)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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