Crossword Genius

Spread with foremost of dishes is by a woman (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

dispersal

'spread' is the definition.
(dispersal is a kind of spread)

'foremost of dishes is by a woman' is the wordplay.
'foremost of' indicates taking the first letters.
'by' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'a' becomes 'per'.
'woman' becomes 'sal' (**).
The first letter of 'dishes' is 'd'.
'd'+'is'+'per'+'sal'='DISPERSAL'

'with' acts as a link.

(Other definitions for dispersal that I've seen before include "Natural spread of seed" , "Scattering" , "(Of smoke) thinning out and disappearance" , "Distribution over a wide area" , "Dissemination" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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