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Insult blue place, for starters (3,4)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

put down

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'insult' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'blue place for starters' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'blue' could be 'down' (both can mean sad) and 'down' is present in the answer.
'place' could be 'put' (synonyms) and 'put' is present in the answer.
This accounts for all the letters.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for put down that I've seen before include "Recorded - snub" , "Quell; snub" , "defeat" , "Make record" , "drop" .)

I've seen this clue in The Daily Express.
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