Crossword Genius

Short promotion by female that features in build-up (6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

hyphen

'that features in build-up' is the definition.
('build-up' contains a hyphen)

'short promotion by female' is the wordplay.
'short' means to remove the last letter.
'promotion' becomes 'hype' (hype is a kind of promotion).
'by female' becomes 'hen' (female chicken. I am not sure about the 'by' bit.).
'hype' with its last letter taken away is 'hyp'.
'hyp'+'hen'='HYPHEN'

(Other definitions for hyphen that I've seen before include "Sign joining words" , "Dash joining words" , "seen in T-shirt and G-string" , "Word-joining mark" , "It joins two words" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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