The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 7 letter word NATIVES
I've seen this crossword clue in The Daily Telegraph
N
A
T
I
V
E
S
More clues leading to the result NATIVES
- Residents show up, going in opposite directions
- Locals show up in nanoseconds!
- Cornish town: its leader is not available for locals
- Ivan set out to find locals
- They can become restless for oysters
- King Cole and Burl maybe as residents
- Time’s up for least sophisticated locals
- Original inhabitants were innocent to welcome traders first, with haste essentially
- Innocent bystanders ultimately interrupted by one of the locals
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "locals" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case locals = natives.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 NATIVES mean?
NATIVES noun- An aboriginal inhabitant of a region colonized by English-speaking people; in particular:
- A person who is native to a place; a person who was born in a place.
- A native speaker.
- Ostrea edulis, a kind of oyster.