Crossword Genius

Becomes touchy when one pours the cat a drink (4,2)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

acts up

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'becomes touchy when one pours' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this definition defines the answer.

'cat a drink' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
an anagram of 'cat' is 'act' which is present in the answer.
'drink' could be 'sup' (to sup is to drink) and 'sup' is located in the answer.
No letters remain.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

'the' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for acts up that I've seen before include "Malfunctions" , "Behaves in a troublesome way" , "Fails to function properly or behaves badly" , "Causes trouble or misbehaves" , "Carries on" .)

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