Dreadful cliche about king, concerning history (9)
I believe the answer is:
chronicle
'history' is the definition.
('chronicle' can be a synonym of 'history')
'dreadful cliche about king concerning' is the wordplay.
'dreadful' indicates anagramming the letters.
'about' indicates putting letters inside.
'king' becomes 'r' (r is abbreviation for rex).
'concerning' becomes 'on'.
'cliche' is an anagram of 'chicle'.
'r'+'on'='ron'
'chicle' enclosing 'ron' is 'CHRONICLE'.
(Other definitions for chronicle that I've seen before include "(Make a) historical record" , "Story" , "Historical account" , "Register of events over time" , "journal" .)