The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 1 plus 3 plus 5 letter word A CUT ABOVE
I've seen this crossword clue in The Guardian
A
C
U
T
A
B
O
V
E
More clues leading to the result A CUT ABOVE
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "Much better" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case much better = a cut above.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.