Crossword Genius

US State address from a beautiful woman starting off (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

missouri

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

'address from a beautiful woman starting off' is the wordplay.
'address from' becomes 'miss' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'a beautiful woman' becomes 'houri' (I've seen this before).
'starting off' means to remove the first letter (the starting letter is removed).
'houri' with its first letter taken away is 'ouri'.
'miss'+'ouri'='MISSOURI'

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(Other definitions for missouri that I've seen before include "24th American state to join the Union, 1821" , "River nicknamed Big Muddy" , "State of central US" , "Biggest tributary of the Mississippi" , "Flower" .)

I've seen this clue in the Irish Times.
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