Crossword Genius

Misanthrope seeming not quite nice to little Cyrus (5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

cynic

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

'seeming not quite nice to little cyrus' is the wordplay.
'seeming' becomes 'y' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'not quite' means to remove the last letter (most but not all of the word).
'to' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other) (I've seen this in other clues).
'little' suggests taking the first letters.
The initial letter of 'cyrus' is 'c'.
'nice' with its last letter taken away is 'nic'.
'y'+'nic'='ynic'
'ynic' put after 'c' is 'CYNIC'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for cynic that I've seen before include "One dismissive of human motives" , "Pessimist" , "one with little faith in human nature" , "Person who is generally sceptical" , "Scoffer" .)

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