Crossword Genius

Lay eggs during May riots. Pardon? (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

amnesty

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'pardon?' is the definition.
('amnesty' can be a synonym of 'pardon')

'lay eggs during may riots' is the wordplay.
'lay eggs' becomes 'nest' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'during' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'riots' is an anagram indicator.
'may' is an anagram of 'amy'.
'nest' inserted within 'amy' is 'AMNESTY'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for amnesty that I've seen before include "Mass pardon of political kind" , "General pardon - international charity" , "Period of pardon" , "When law is suspended" , "Organisation concerned with people unjustly imprisoned" .)

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.
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