Seriously and sorely upset about a bad start (7)
I believe the answer is:
soberly
'seriously' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'sorely upset about a bad start' is the wordplay.
'upset' indicates an anagram.
'about' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'start' indicates taking the first letters.
The initial letter of 'bad' is 'b'.
'sorely' is an anagram of 'soerly'.
'soerly' placed around 'b' is 'SOBERLY'.
'and' acts as a link.
(Another definition for soberly that I've seen is " In a non-alcoholic manner.".)
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