Steamy gossip brought up about old king (6)
I believe the answer is:
torrid
'steamy' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'gossip brought up about old king' is the wordplay.
'gossip' becomes 'dirt' (as in the phrase 'dish the dirt'**).
'brought up' shows that the letters should be reversed in order (down clues only).
'about' indicates putting letters inside.
'old' becomes 'o' (common abbreviation eg in OE for Old English).
'king' becomes 'r' (r is abbreviation for rex).
'dirt' written backwards gives 'trid'.
'o'+'r'='or'
'trid' going around 'or' is 'TORRID'.
(Other definitions for torrid that I've seen before include "Scorchingly hot" , "Bendy" , "Scorching hot" , "Of climate, very hot and dry" , "Highly charged emotionally" .)