Crossword Genius

Venusian, say, exposed as deception (3)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

lie

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

'deception' is the definition.
(I know that lie is a type of deception)

'venusian say exposed' is the wordplay.
'venusian' becomes 'li' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'say' becomes 'plead' (pleading is a kind of saying).
'exposed' means to look at the middle letters (outside letters removed).
The centre of 'plead' is 'e'.
'li'+'e'='LIE'

'as' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for lie that I've seen before include "found" , "Porky" , "Assume a horizontal position" , "Disinformation" , "Stretch out" .)

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.
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