The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 8 letter word SOCRATES
I've seen this crossword clue in The Times
S
O
C
R
A
T
E
S
More clues leading to the result SOCRATES
- Half of soap boxes used by this Athenian philosopher
- Wisely, he thought “I need help carrying box”
- Man famously put to death because upping taxes once
- Help us to carry box for Greek philosopher
- Philosopher provided packing cases
- Philosopher abandoning case makes a cry for help
- Philosopher makes old actress sad
- Ancient Greek boxes well at first
- Philosopher‘s very good bangers
- Very old cars, great mind in Greece
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "Man famously put to death" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case man famously put to death = socrates.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.