The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 7 letter word EVENING
I've seen this crossword clue in The Times
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More clues leading to the result EVENING
- Late in the day to be smoothing things out?
- No time for equestrian competition late in day
- Ironing, perhaps, some time after dark?
- Non-daytime / ironing?
- Levelling out late in the day
- Making smooth transition from day into night
- Smoothing the end of the day
- Ironing, perhaps at end of day
- Drawing level at close of day?
- Levelling the score late in the day
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "Smoothing/end of the day" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case smoothing/end of the day = evening.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 EVENING mean?
EVENING noun- The time of the day between dusk and night, when it gets dark.
- The time of the day between the approximate time of midwinter dusk and midnight (compare afternoon); the period after the end of regular office working hours.
- A concluding time period; a point in time near the end of something; the beginning of the end of something.
- A party or gathering held in the evening.
- To make flat and level.
- To equal.
- To be equal.
- To place in an equal state, as to obligation, or in a state in which nothing is due on either side; to balance, as accounts; to make quits.
- To set right; to complete.
- To act up to; to keep pace with.
- To occur; to happen; to come to pass.