Lengthening a letter to the monarch (5)
I believe the answer is:
eking
'lengthening a' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this definition defines the answer.
'letter to the monarch' is the wordplay.
'letter' becomes 'e' ().
'to the monarch' becomes 'king' (king is a kind of monarch).
'e'+'king'='EKING'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for eking that I've seen before include "Increasing" , "With difficulty, making" , "spinning?" , "Making last longer by careful use" , "making up the required amount" .)