Crossword Genius

Heartlessly deny repulsive ruling family (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

dynasty

'ruling family' is the definition.
(as in a royal dynasty)

'heartlessly deny repulsive' is the wordplay.
'heartlessly' means to remove the middle letters.
'repulsive' becomes 'nasty' (I've seen this before).
'deny' with its middle removed is 'dy'.
'dy'+'nasty'='DYNASTY'

(Other definitions for dynasty that I've seen before include "Powerful family line" , "Song perhaps" , "Succession of relatives" , "Sequence of powerful leaders in the same family" , "TV series" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.
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