The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 7 letter word ELOPERS
I've seen this crossword clue in Independent
E
L
O
P
E
R
S
More clues leading to the result ELOPERS
- Australia missing ‘reformed’ parolees
- A dish and spoon in nursery rhyme, say
- Couples going off to ring each other?
- They run away with union in mind
- Wanting time perhaps to sleep around, a little recklessly they run away
- Extricate device partly from programmers who run away
- Australia missing 'reformed' parolees
- Runaway lovers break up or sleep
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "Couples going off to ring each other" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case couples going off to ring each other = elopers.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.