Crossword Genius

Pulse fast, extremely ill (6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

lentil

'pulse' is the definition.
(type of pulse)

'fast extremely ill' is the wordplay.
'fast' becomes 'lent' (Lent is a period of fasting in Christianity).
'extremely' means to remove the middle letters (only the extremes of the word are used).
'ill' with its middle removed is 'il'.
'lent'+'il'='LENTIL'

(Other definitions for lentil that I've seen before include "Leguminous vegetable" , "Pulse used in soup" , "Plant - pulse" , "Pulse for soup etc" , "Edible seed of bean plant" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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