The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 4 letter word ROPY
I've seen this crossword clue in Financial Times
R
O
P
Y
More clues leading to the result ROPY
- Some polypropylene is of poor quality
- Like a twisted cord that’s not very good
- Poor work disrupting railway
- Cut of belly pork turned glutinous
- Off colour, or bunged up and extremely pasty
- Far from top quality work across the tracks
- Glutinous helping of chilly porridge served up
- Slightly unwell — or, on reflection, extremely poorly
- Bad, being stranded?
- Conclusions reached by teacher, sadly, about work of poor quality
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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 ROPY mean?
ROPY adjective- Resembling rope in appearance or texture, used especially of muscles that are thick or hard to the touch.
- Capable of forming rope-like or thread-like structures.
- Of poor quality; in poor health.
- (of milk or another liquid) Slimy, as after the action of Enterobacter aerogenes in syrup.