Crossword Genius

Mad artist receives offer (5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

rabid

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'mad' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'artist receives offer' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'artist' could be 'ra' (Royal Academician, member of Royal Academy of Arts) and 'ra' is found within the answer.
'offer' could be 'bid' (synonyms) and 'bid' is present in the answer.
No letters remain.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for rabid that I've seen before include "Frenzied" , "Affected by hydrophobia" , "Extremely fanatical" , "Mad like deranged dog" , "Ill from a mad dog bite?" .)

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