Improperly picks up girl, stopped by judge (8)

I believe the answer is:

mishears

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'improperly picks up' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I cannot tell whether this works.

'girl stopped by judge' is the wordplay.
'girl' becomes 'miss' (term of address for an unmarried woman).
'stopped by' means one lot of letters goes inside another (stopping can mean blocking a gap).
'judge' becomes 'hear' (as in to hear a court case).
'miss' enclosing 'hear' is 'MISHEARS'.

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I've seen this clue in The Guardian.

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