Crossword Genius

Sad face, taking in storm on vacation (6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

dismal

'sad' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'face taking in storm on vacation' is the wordplay.
'face' becomes 'dial' (dial is a kind of face**).
'taking in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'on vacation' means to remove the middle letters.
'storm' with its middle taken out is 'sm'.
'dial' enclosing 'sm' is 'DISMAL'.

(Other definitions for dismal that I've seen before include "not a cheerful outlook ..." , "Lugubrious" , "Depressing in character or appearance" , "black and > blue" , "Dull; doleful" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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