The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 7 letter word DISTAFF
I've seen this crossword clue in Financial Times
D
I
S
T
A
F
F
More clues leading to the result DISTAFF
- Return of loud and corpulent little man is concerning women
- Cleft stick girl’s found by river at Pontypridd
- Turning off at sideroad, avoiding some stick
- Female following obese man sent north
- Detective ruled lines for notes concerning women
- Half of flipping idle workers getting stick
- Women’s work in underground river in Wales
- Female duck shaking tail, first to take a dip?
- Stick found by officers next to river
- Passport rejected, man being female!
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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 DISTAFF mean?
DISTAFF noun- A device to which a bundle of natural fibres (often wool, flax, or cotton) are attached for temporary storage, before being drawn off gradually to spin thread. A traditional distaff is a staff with flax fibres tied loosely to it (as indicated by the etymology of the word), but modern distaffs are often made of cords weighted with beads, and attached to the wrist.
- The part of a spinning wheel from which fibre is drawn to be spun.
- Anything traditionally done by or considered of importance to women only.
- A race for female horses only.
- A woman, or women considered as a group.
- Of, relating to, or characteristic of women.
- Of the maternal side of a family.