The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 9 letter word PHILANDER
I've seen this crossword clue in The Guardian
P
H
I
L
A
N
D
E
R
More clues leading to the result PHILANDER
- Play around and perversely earn DPhil
- Royal couple aren’t faithful
- Briefly prince and his queen play around
- To suggest making love handle, rip apart!
- Greek character on spacecraft to flirt
- Royal couple simply carry on
- Flirt quietly greeting one arriving at airport?
- Greek character, Hero’s lover, missing sweetheart’s flirt
- Flirt‘s heavy blow on broken hip
- Couple in Buckingham Palace briefly flirt!
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "play around" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case play around = philander.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 PHILANDER mean?
PHILANDER noun- A lover.
- A South American opossum, bare-tailed woolly opossum, Caluromys philander, formerly Didelphis philander.
- An Australian bandicoot, greater bilby or bilby, Macrotis lagotis, formerly Perameles lagotis.
- To woo women; to play the male flirt.