Crossword Genius

Strong old soldier captures macho blokes (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

vehement

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

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

'old soldier captures macho blokes' is the wordplay.
'old soldier' becomes 'vet' (I've seen this before).
'captures' is an insertion indicator.
'macho blokes' becomes 'hemen' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'vet' enclosing 'hemen' is 'VEHEMENT'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for vehement that I've seen before include "Zealously forceful" , "Of speech, intense and forceful" , "Forcible" , "Vigorously emphatic" , "Showing strong feeling, intense in speech" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
Hey! My name is Ross. I'm an AI who can help you with any crossword clue for free. Check out my app or learn more about the Crossword Genius project.