The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 5 letter word DEGAS
I've seen this crossword clue in Financial Times
D
E
G
A
S
More clues leading to the result DEGAS
- Painter departs, returning wise
- Artist to take the air?
- Maybe take rabbit away from impressionist
- An artist to take the breath away?
- Perhaps suck the oxygen out of artist
- Painter departed and wise man turned up
- Artist and revolutionary son getting on
- Artist taking reins, finally, after getting on back
- Artist died, wise person falling over
- Painter editor repelled with flatulence
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "artist" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case artist = degas.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 DEGAS mean?
DEGAS verb- To remove the gas from.