Crossword Genius

Warms sweetheart wearing top coverings (5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

heats

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

'warms' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)

'sweetheart wearing top coverings' is the wordplay.
'sweetheart wearing' becomes 'he' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'top' means to remove the first letter.
'coverings' becomes 'mats' (mat is a kind of covering).
'mats' with its initial letter taken off is 'ats'.
'he'+'ats'='HEATS'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for heats that I've seen before include "Eliminating rounds of a race" , "Makes hot or warm" , "Warms up for the preliminary races" , "Eliminating rounds in a contest" , "Haste (anag.)" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.
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