Crossword Genius

Touching line from male who's been on sunbed? (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

tangent

'touching line' is the definition.
(a line touching a circle)

'male who's been on sunbed?' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'male' could be 'gent' (gent is a kind of male) and 'gent' is found within the answer.
The remaining letters 'tan' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

'from' is the link.

(Other definitions for tangent that I've seen before include "Straight line that touches but does not intersect a circle" , "Straight line that touches but does not intersect a curve" , "Straight line touching a circle" , "Line touching curve at one point" , "What people often go off at!" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.
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