Crossword Genius

Sea creature over sea expressed fantastic spout (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

octopus

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

'over sea expressed fantastic spout' is the wordplay.
'over' becomes 'o' (cricket abbreviation**).
'expressed' indicates a 'sounds like' (homophone) clue.
'fantastic' is an anagram indicator.
'sea' sounds like 'c'.
'spout' with letters rearranged gives 'topus'.
'o'+'c'+'topus'='OCTOPUS'

(Other definitions for octopus that I've seen before include "Spineless creature" , "Large marine mollusc" , "Influential person" , "something from La Mer?" , "Eight-legged creature" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.
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