Cold male lacking pretence (9)

I believe the answer is:

heartless

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'cold' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'male lacking pretence' is the wordplay.
'male' becomes 'he' (he refers to a man).
'lacking pretence' becomes 'artless' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'he'+'artless'='HEARTLESS'

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(Other definitions for heartless that I've seen before include "Completely lacking in feeling" , "insensitive" , "Cold-blooded" , "Lacking feeling through cardiac deficiency" , "Uncaring" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.

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