Crossword Genius

Distinguished company sing about earl, boring King Edward (10)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

recognised

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'distinguished company sing' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this defines the answer.

'earl boring king edward' is the wordplay.
'earl' becomes 'cognise' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'boring' means one lot of letters goes inside another (to bore something can mean to drill into it).
'king' becomes 'R' (abbreviation of Latin rex).
'edward' becomes 'Ed' (short for Edward).
'r'+'ed'='red'
'cognise' put within 'red' is 'RECOGNISED'.

'about' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for recognised that I've seen before include "Acknowledged" , "Was aware of" , "appreciated" , "given approval" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.
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