Massive winger covers a short distance (7)

I believe the answer is:

mammoth

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'massive' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'winger covers a short distance' is the wordplay.
'winger' becomes 'moth' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'covers' indicates putting letters inside.
'short distance' becomes 'mm' (abbreviation for millimetre).
'a'+'mm'='amm'
'moth' going around 'amm' is 'MAMMOTH'.

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(Other definitions for mammoth that I've seen before include "Prehistoric woolly elephant" , "Immense" , "Gigantic - extinct animal" , "Large 15 animal" , "Extinct species of elephant" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.

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