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Snapped after apartment cleaned out (4,5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

flat broke

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

'snapped after apartment' is the wordplay.
'snapped' becomes 'broke' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'after' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'apartment' becomes 'flat' (synonyms).
'broke' after 'flat' is 'FLAT BROKE'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Another definition for flat broke that I've seen is " cleaned out".)

I've seen this clue in The Times and The Telegraph.
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