Crossword Genius

Laments day-old fails (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

monodies

'laments' is the definition.
(a monody is a poem written in mourning)

'day-old fails' is the wordplay.
'day' becomes 'mon'.
'old' becomes 'o' (common abbreviation eg in OE for Old English).
'fails' becomes 'dies' ('die' can be a synonym of 'fail').
'mon'+'o'+'dies'='MONODIES'

(Another definition for monodies that I've seen is " solos?".)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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