Crossword Genius

Matures and rents space inside (6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

ripens

'matures' is the definition.
(ripening is a kind of maturing)

'rents space inside' is the wordplay.
'rents' becomes 'rips' ('rip' can be a synonym of 'rent').
'space' becomes 'en' (in printing, a space as wide as a letter 'n').
'inside' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'rips' going around 'en' is 'RIPENS'.

'and' is the link.

(Another definition for ripens that I've seen is " Matures".)

I've seen this clue in The Mirror.
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