The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 4 plus 5 letter word PAST TENSE
I've seen this crossword clue in Financial Times
P
A
S
T
T
E
N
S
E
More clues leading to the result PAST TENSE
- Beyond nervous, maybe frightened or terrified
- Grammar form suited to a bygone time
- No longer apprehensive of grammatical term
- Under pressure after spat about verb form
- Beyond strained way of referring to earlier action
- Gum showing XXXs in which history is described...?
- Sent wandering, was in a fix yesterday, perhaps
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "Grammar form suited to a bygone time" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case grammar form suited to a bygone time = past tense.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.