Crossword Genius

Withdraw making cry of pain in fight (3,3)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

bow out

'withdraw' is the definition.
(bowing out is a kind of withdrawing)

'cry of pain in fight' is the wordplay.
'cry of pain' becomes 'ow' (I've seen this in other clues).
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'fight' becomes 'bout' ('bout' can be a synonym of 'fight').
'ow' going within 'bout' is 'BOW OUT'.

'making' acts as a link.

(Other definitions for bow out that I've seen before include "Withdraw from a situation" , "Exit; retire" , "Retire from the scene with bodily gesture of acknowledgement?" , "Retire gracefully" , "What a string player often gets" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.
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