Crossword Genius

Watched as the author cried out loud (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

eyeballed

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

'the author cried out loud' is the wordplay.
'the author' becomes 'eye' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'cried' becomes 'bawled' ('bawl' can be a synonym of 'cry').
'out loud' indicates a 'sounds like' (homophone) clue.
'bawled' is a homophone of 'balled'.
'eye'+'balled'='EYEBALLED'

'as' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for eyeballed that I've seen before include "Stared at" , "confronted" , "looked at" , "Watched" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.
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