Crossword Genius

Scholar, a rogue, with English tailless rodents (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

academic

'scholar' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'a rogue with english tailless rodents' is the wordplay.
'rogue' becomes 'cad' (I've seen this in another clue).
'with' says to put letters next to each other.
'english' becomes 'e' (abbreviation).
'tailless' means to remove the last letter (the tail of the word is removed).
'rodents' becomes 'mice' (mouse is a kind of rodent).
'mice' with its final letter taken away is 'mic'.
'a'+'cad'+'e'+'mic'='ACADEMIC'

(Other definitions for academic that I've seen before include "Scholar - of no practical relevance" , "what's not relevant" , "Relating to scholarship and education" , "Professor possibly" , "Scholarly: hypothetical" .)

I've seen this clue in The Daily Express.
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