Crossword Genius

Step in front of empty net or grating (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

strident

'grating' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'step in front of empty net' is the wordplay.
'step' becomes 'stride' (stride is a kind of step**).
'in front of' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'empty' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters).
'net' with its middle removed is 'nt'.
'stride'+'nt'='STRIDENT'

'or' acts as a link.

(Other definitions for strident that I've seen before include "Loud and harsh over tridents" , "Unpleasantly loud and harsh" , "making a lot of noise" , "Roaring" , "Grating - urgent" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.
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