The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 8 letter word STARLESS
I've seen this crossword clue in The Sunday Telegraph
S
T
A
R
L
E
S
S
More clues leading to the result STARLESS
- Black ships initially without crew?
- Dark space originally without the black stuff?
- Dark, like a low-budget movie?
- Might a low budget film be so dark?
- Fresh alert’s given with ship lacking traditional means of navigation?
- Sailor, the Parisian on board ship lacking sparkle
- Dark without famous people?
- Dark tassels twisted around first of ropes
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "dark" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case dark = starless.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.