Crossword Genius

Tree extremely likely to be quite old (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

elderly

'be quite old' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'tree extremely likely' is the wordplay.
'tree' becomes 'elder' (elder is a kind of tree).
'extremely' suggests removing the centre (only the extremes of the word are used).
'likely' with its middle removed is 'ly'.
'elder'+'ly'='ELDERLY'

'to' acts as a link.

(Other definitions for elderly that I've seen before include "Long in the tooth" , "Not young" , "Mature" , "over the hill" , "Somewhat old" .)

I've seen this clue in The Daily Express.
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.