Cryptic crossword clue
Cuts out strong drink rounds for judge 5-8

The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 5 plus 8 letter word SHORT CIRCUITS

I've seen this crossword clue in The Daily Telegraph
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Buddy explains!

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 SHORT CIRCUITS mean?

SHORT CIRCUITS verb
  1. To cause a short circuit in
  2. (by extension) to force termination of an ongoing process before its natural conclusion by bypassing one or more intermediary steps
  3. To terminate a loop before the declared termination condition is met or a conditional before all conditions have been tested for

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