Crossword Genius

Small support for hosting a composer (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

strauss

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

'composer' is the definition.
(I know that Strauss is a composer)

'small support for hosting a' is the wordplay.
'small' becomes 's' (abbreviation - e.g. clothes size).
'support for' becomes 'truss' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'hosting' is an insertion indicator (inserted letters are welcomed in or hosted).
'truss' placed around 'a' is 'trauss'.
's'+'trauss'='STRAUSS'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for strauss that I've seen before include "Composer of Blue Danube waltz" , "US stars made the composer" , "Andrew --, England cricketer" , "Austrian composer of waltzes" , "Johann, great composer of waltz music" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.
Want a hint initially instead of a full solution? Install my app