Make rough speed north round outskirts of Slough (7)

I believe the answer is:

harshen

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'make' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both related to change as well as being verbs in their base form.
Perhaps you can see an association between them that I can't see?

'rough speed north round outskirts of slough' is the wordplay.
'rough speed' becomes 'hare' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'north' becomes 'N' (abbreviation).
'round' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'outskirts of' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters) (only letters on the outskirts).
'slough' with its middle removed is 'sh'.
'hare'+'n'='haren'
'haren' enclosing 'sh' is 'HARSHEN'.

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I've seen this clue in The Times.

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