How the kisses were deleted? (7,3)

I believe the answer is:

crossed out

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'how the kisses' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this defines the answer.

'were deleted?' is the wordplay.
'were' becomes 'crossed' (crossing is a kind of being).
'deleted?' becomes 'out' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'crossed'+'out'='CROSSED OUT'

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