Crossword Genius

Imagines cooler cities cut it (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

fancies

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'imagines' is the definition.
(fancying is a kind of imagining)

'cooler cities cut it' is the wordplay.
'cooler' becomes 'fan' (I've seen this before).
'cities' becomes 'cie' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'cut' means to remove the last letter.
'it' becomes 'sa' (old-fashioned abbreviation for sex appeal).
'sa' with its last letter taken away is 's'.
'fan'+'cie'+'s'='FANCIES'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for fancies that I've seen before include "Little cakes" , "Would have" , "Desires, whims" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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