The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 3 plus 4 letter word DUE DATE
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More clues leading to the result DUE DATE
- Payment deadline ducked, deducting middle bit
- Dude terribly worried when delivery expected
- End of term, when book’s to be returned?
- Proclamation of Law, perhaps, took in D-Day?
- Outstanding romantic event — or time for the result?
- Deadline as the guy was fed, reportedly
- Time to expect engagement between two shortly bearing fruit
- Outstanding on court, time to settle
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "time to settle" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case time to settle = due date.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.