Cryptic crossword clue
Adds water to allegedly suppress grades 8

The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 8 letter word HYDRATES

I've seen this crossword clue in Financial Times
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Buddy explains!

The straight part
We know that "Adds water to" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case adds water to = hydrates.
The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.
This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.

What does HYDRATES mean?

HYDRATES noun
  1. A solid compound containing or linked to water molecules.
  2. Water.
HYDRATES verb
  1. To take up, consume or become linked to water.
  2. To drink water.
  3. To load data from a database record into an object's variables

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