Crossword Genius

Underscore “in years” (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

teenage

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'underscore' is the definition.
The answer and definition are not the same part of speech.

'in years' is the wordplay.
'in' becomes 'teen' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'years' becomes 'age' ('age' can be a synonym of 'years').
'teen'+'age'='TEENAGE'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for teenage that I've seen before include "Youthful" , "Like a category of youngsters" , "Like one thirteen-nineteen years old" , "Relatively young" , "Eat gene to become young" .)

I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.
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