Crossword Genius

Beloved is faithful without urgency occasionally (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

precious

'beloved' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'faithful without urgency occasionally' is the wordplay.
'faithful' becomes 'pious' (**).
'without' means one lot of letters goes inside another ('without' can be similar in meaning to 'outside').
'occasionally' means one should take alternating letters.
The alternating letters of 'urgency' are 'rec'.
'pious' enclosing 'rec' is 'PRECIOUS'.

'is' is the link.

(Other definitions for precious that I've seen before include "Valuable; the Ring, for Gollum (Tolkien)" , "Having great value" , "Much loved" , "costly" , "Cherished or of high worth" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.
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