The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 3 plus 6 letter word HOI POLLOI
I've seen this crossword clue in Independent
H
O
I
P
O
L
L
O
I
More clues leading to the result HOI POLLOI
- Hospital treated polio with oil for masses
- The people vote, beset by hard claims for attention
- Home Office head blocking just over 100 ordinary folk
- God alters intro to “Oi!” in greeting commoners
- ‘Listen: I get votes. Listen: “masses“‘ …
- Call for attention twice, holding vote for the masses
- Orthodox Greek masses
- Third estate supply Phil with £1,000
- Public strip show hit for six when covering election
- Masses of hot oil sprinkled twice over river
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "Plebs" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case plebs = hoi polloi.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.