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Intended to have one by me until then (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

meantime

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

'until then' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.

'intended to have one by me' is the wordplay.
'intended' becomes 'meant' (meaning is a kind of intending).
'to have' says to put letters next to each other.
'one' becomes 'i' (roman numeral).
'by' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'meant'+'i'+'me'='MEANTIME'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for meantime that I've seen before include "interim?" , "Intervening period" , "For the moment" , "interval" .)

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