Improved engineer asked king out (5)

I believe the answer is:

eased

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'improved' is the definition.
Both the answer and definition are adjectives. Maybe you can see an association between them that I don't see?

'engineer asked king out' is the wordplay.
'engineer' becomes 'e' (this could be a standard abbreviation I've not previously seen).
'king' becomes 'K' (abbreviation for king in chess).
'out' suggests deleting specific letters.
'asked' with 'k' taken out is 'ased'.
'e'+'ased'='EASED'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for eased that I've seen before include "Relieved, mitigated" , "Made less stressful or difficult" , "Made less difficult or trying" , "Moved carefully" , "Slackened off" .)

I've seen this clue in The Daily Express.

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