Crossword Genius

More horrible wine Roman fiddler endlessly consumes? (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

nastier

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

'more horrible' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are comparative adjectives. Maybe there's a link between them I don't understand?

'wine roman fiddler endlessly consumes?' is the wordplay.
'wine' becomes 'asti' (Italian wine).
'roman fiddler' becomes 'nero' (I've seen this in another clue).
'endlessly' means to remove the last letter.
'consumes?' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'nero' with its final letter taken off is 'ner'.
'asti' placed inside 'ner' is 'NASTIER'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for nastier that I've seen before include "Less nice" , "more aggressive" , "Retsina (anag) -- not so nice" , "becomes more unpleasant" , "More unpleasant or distasteful" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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