Crossword Genius

Person of rank very depressed before blastoff (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

countdown

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

'blastoff' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both acts as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe you can see an association between them that I can't see?

'person of rank very depressed' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'person' could be 'count' (count is a kind of person) and 'count' is located in the answer.
'of' could be 'o' and 'o' is located in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

'before' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for countdown that I've seen before include "5-4-3-2-1" , "It ends 2, 1, zero" , "Three, two, one - launch spacecraft" , "Run-up" , "game show" .)

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