Crossword Genius

Girl hardly worth picking up? (5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

penny

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'up?' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are adjectives. Maybe there's a link between them I don't understand?

'girl hardly worth picking' is the wordplay.
'girl' becomes 'pen'.
'hardly worth picking' becomes 'ny' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'pen'+'ny'='PENNY'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for penny that I've seen before include "p; small coin" , "One hundredth of a pound" , "Coin spent by the desperate?" , "The price of a thought" , "Lancaster" .)

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