Crossword Genius

More bloody time up in Kings (5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

rarer

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

'more bloody' is the definition.
Both the answer and definition are comparative adjectives. Perhaps you can see an association between them that I don't see?

'time up in kings' is the wordplay.
'time' becomes 'era' (an era is a period of time).
'up' is a reversal indicator (in down clue: letters go upwards).
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'kings' becomes 'RR' (abbreviation for rex - 'king' in Latin - repeated).
'era' backwards is 'are'.
'are' going within 'rr' is 'RARER'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for rarer that I've seen before include "(Of meat) less cooked" , "Stranger" , "More unusual" , "less easy to find" , "Comparatively sparse" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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