Half-heartedly had rings left to be copied (6)
I believe the answer is:
cloned
'be copied' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'half-heartedly had rings left' is the wordplay.
'half-heartedly' becomes 'cone' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'had' becomes 'd' (in contractions e.g. 'I'd', 'you'd' etc).
'rings' is an insertion indicator (some letters are ringed or contained by others).
'left' becomes 'l' (common abbreviation).
'cone'+'d'='coned'
'coned' placed around 'l' is 'CLONED'.
'to' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for cloned that I've seen before include "Copied genetically" , "Propagated like Dolly the sheep" , "with many copies" , "Made an identical copy of a living organism" , "Produced a replica of" .)
