Old American lift regularly expected to drop a little lower (2-4)

I believe the answer is:

in-calf

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'expected to drop a little lower' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I can't tell whether this works.

'old american lift regularly' is the wordplay.
'old american' becomes 'Inca' (the Inca were a South American people).
'regularly' indicates alternate letters (regularly take one letter, leave next etc.).
The alternating letters of 'lift' are 'lf'.
'inca'+'lf'='IN-CALF'

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