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Put on a less hard case a little while later (4,5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

soon after

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'case a little while later' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I cannot judge whether it can be defined by this definition.

'put on a less hard' is the wordplay.
'put' is an insertion indicator.
'less hard' becomes 'softer' ('soft' can be the opposite of 'hard' so perhaps 'softer' is reasonable for 'less hard').
'on'+'a'='ona'
'ona' inserted into 'softer' is 'SOON AFTER'.

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