Cool Queen, second time around (8)
I believe the answer is:
moderate
'cool' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'queen second time around' is the wordplay.
'queen' becomes 'er' (abbreviation for Elizabeth Regina).
'second' becomes 'mo' (both are short periods of time).
'time' becomes 'date' (date is a kind of time**).
'around' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'mo'+'date'='modate'
'er' inserted within 'modate' is 'MODERATE'.
(Other definitions for moderate that I've seen before include "Temper" , "Not excessive or extreme" , "kept within bounds" , "Not extreme - not very good" , "not going to extremes" .)