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Publicly expose a lightweight understudy (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

denounce

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'understudy' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are verbs in their base form, I cannot see how one could define the other.

'publicly expose a lightweight' is the wordplay.
'publicly expose' becomes 'den' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'a lightweight' becomes 'ounce' (I've seen this before).
'den'+'ounce'='DENOUNCE'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for denounce that I've seen before include "Speak violently against" , "Revile" , "As threat, identify" , "Speak publicly against, censure" , "Inform against (someone)" .)

I've seen this clue in The Globe and Mail.
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