Crossword Genius

Insolent feature on heartless wages (5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

lippy

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'insolent' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are adjectives.
Maybe you can see a link between them that I can't see?

'feature on heartless wages' is the wordplay.
'feature on' becomes 'lip' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'heartless' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters).
'wages' becomes 'pay' (I've seen this in another clue).
'pay' with its centre taken out is 'py'.
'lip'+'py'='LIPPY'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for lippy that I've seen before include "Cheeky; make-up item" , "Fresh" , "Pert - cosmetic (informal)" , "Insolent - make-up item" , "Cheeky - cosmetic (informal)" .)

I've seen this clue in The Daily Express.
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