The better the summer, the faster it’s dealt with (8)
I believe the answer is:
addition
'the better' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I cannot understand how one could define the other.
'the summer the faster it's dealt with' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'it's' could be 'it' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'it' is found within the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for addition that I've seen before include "plus" , "Combination of numbers to find the sum" , "Increment" , "Simple kind of arithmetic" , "Process of summation" .)