The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 8 letter word ANTLERED
I've seen this crossword clue in The Sunday Telegraph
A
N
T
L
E
R
E
D
More clues leading to the result ANTLERED
- The French tucked into wine after creepy-crawly with bony outgrowths
- Descriptive of a stag do — half cut after eternal rounds
- Enter lad disguised as a stag?
- Dancer’s this, learnt excited journalist
- Worker, perhaps, left deer playing like stags
- Soldier was first to embrace queen with horny growth
- Possibly like 10 books stocked by novel dealer
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "as a stag?" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case as a stag? = antlered.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.