Crossword Genius

Masculine stratagem in rising river's working (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

employed

'working' is the definition.
('employed' can be similar in meaning to 'working')

'masculine stratagem in rising river's' is the wordplay.
'masculine' becomes 'm'.
'stratagem' becomes 'ploy' ('ploy' can be a synonym of 'stratagem'**).
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'rising' is a reversal indicator (going up in a down clue).
'river' becomes 'dee' (River Dee).
'dee' backwards is 'eed'.
'm'+'ploy'='mploy'
'mploy' put within 'eed' is 'EMPLOYED'.

(Other definitions for employed that I've seen before include "Working" , "in a job" , "Gave work to" , "Hired, made use of" , "Engaged in paid work" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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