Crossword Genius

Judge Crick shortly drinking vermouth (6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

critic

'judge' is the definition.
(critic is a kind of judge)

'crick shortly drinking vermouth' is the wordplay.
'shortly' means to remove the last letter.
'drinking' is an insertion indicator.
'vermouth' becomes 'it' (short for 'Italian vermouth' as in 'gin and it').
'crick' with its last letter removed is 'cric'.
'cric' enclosing 'it' is 'CRITIC'.

(Other definitions for critic that I've seen before include "Professional analyst of works of art" , "Reviewer of book or play" , "Performance judge" , "One who assesses" , "Arts reviewer" .)

I've seen this clue in The Sun.
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