Crossword Genius

Party, extremely grandiose, for Venice magistrate (4)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

doge

'venice magistrate' is the definition.
(as in the Doges of Venice)

'party extremely grandiose' is the wordplay.
'party' becomes 'do' (do is a kind of party).
'extremely' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters) (only the extremes of the word are used).
'grandiose' with its centre taken out is 'ge'.
'do'+'ge'='DOGE'

'for' is the link.

(Other definitions for doge that I've seen before include "Chief of ancient Venice" , "Magistrate of 14 (historical)" , "Old ruler of Venice" , "Old chief magistrate in Venice and Genoa" , "Venetian leader" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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