The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 5 letter word SIREN
I've seen this crossword clue in The Times
S
I
R
E
N
More clues leading to the result SIREN
- Go astray, admitting touching femme fatale
- Warning: she may lead you astray
- Father has name for seductress
- Alarm father and son finally
- Seductive woman’s name associated with father
- Father has new attractive female
- Alluring woman’s anger in outskirts of Saigon
- Father Brown finally married a temptress
- Father gets new warning
- Partners suppress anger with alarm
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "a temptress" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case a temptress = siren.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 SIREN mean?
SIREN noun- One of a group of nymphs who lured mariners to their death on the rocks.
- One who sings sweetly and charms.
- A dangerously seductive woman.
- A member of an order of mammals of Sirenia (first attested in French in Dominique Bouhours, Les entretiens d'Ariste et d'Eugène, 1671).
- A member of a genus of aquatic salamanders of the family Sirenidae (originally introduced by Linnaeus, 1766, for a genus of his reptiles), commonly used for all species subsumed under the family of Sirenidae.
- Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the genus Hestina.
- A device, either mechanical or electronic, that makes a piercingly loud sound as an alarm or signal, or the sound from such a device (first recorded 1879).
- A musical instrument, one of the few aerophones in the percussion section of the symphony orchestra (patented as Acme Siren in 1895).
- An instrument for demonstrating the laws of beats and combination tones.
- An astrophysical event that can be used for calculating cosmic distances.
- To make a noise with, or as if with, a siren.
- Relating to or like a siren.