Crossword Genius

Rational offspring wear flap-eared muffler (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

reasoned

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

'rational' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are adjectives. Maybe there's a link between them I don't understand?

'offspring wear flap-eared muffler' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'offspring' could be 'son' (male offspring) and 'son' is present in the answer.
an anagram of 'eared' is 'reaed' which is located in the remaining letters.
This accounts for all the letters.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for reasoned that I've seen before include "Based on logic" , "Spoke logically, thought and drew conclusions" , "Explained logically" , "Deduced or concluded" , "Well thought out" .)

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.
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