Crossword Genius

Just a quarter of the time (6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

season

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

'the time' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'just a quarter' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'a' is present in the answer.
'quarter' could be 'se' and 'se' is located in the answer.
The remaining letters 'son' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

'of' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for season that I've seen before include "Salt, maybe" , "One of four periods" , "Add salt, pepper, spice etc" , "instruction in recipe" , "Add flavour with salt and pepper" .)

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