Crossword Genius

The French start to strike? Not so much (4)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

less

'not so much' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'the french start to strike?' is the wordplay.
'the french' becomes 'les' (les is the in french**).
'start to' indicates taking the first letters.
The first letter of 'strike' is 's'.
'les'+'s'='LESS'

(Other definitions for less that I've seen before include "more, as they say" , "A smaller amount" , "Fewer in number" , "Comparatively little" , "Fewer; minus" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.
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