The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 9 letter word SEMICOLON
I've seen this crossword clue in The Times
S
E
M
I
C
O
L
O
N
More clues leading to the result SEMICOLON
- Lion comes skidding to less than a full stop
- Joiner placing typical suburban house by cut-off settlement
- Lions come running _;_ this is the end
- Is monocle ruined? There's a little mark
- Mark you may be left with after intestinal op?
- Army officer in house on short break
- Stop intelligence officer infiltrating Kent cricket side?
- . What’s this?; a house, almost a settlement
- Monocle is adjusted to see this mark
- Mark house somewhere in Panama
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "short break" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case short break = semicolon.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 SEMICOLON mean?
SEMICOLON noun- The punctuation mark ;.