Crossword Genius

Scathingly review article on Rex cat (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

panther

'cat' is the definition.
(I know that panther is a type of cat)

'scathingly review article on rex' is the wordplay.
'scathingly review' becomes 'pan' (to pan something is to give it a bad review).
'article' becomes 'the' (the definite article in English).
'on' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'rex' becomes 'R' (abbreviation e.g. GR=George Rex, King George).
'pan'+'the'+'r'='PANTHER'

(Other definitions for panther that I've seen before include "Big cat" , "animal!" , "kind of feline" , "Then rap the large black cat" , "Bagheera?" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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