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A small vessel to wrench primarily, big round and tapered at the top (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

towboat

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

'a small vessel' is the definition.
'towboat' can be an answer for 'vessel' (towboat is a kind of vessel). I am not certain of the 'a small' bit.

'to wrench primarily big round and tapered at the top' is the wordplay.
'to wrench' becomes 'tow' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'primarily' suggests taking the first letters.
'round' becomes 'o' (round can mean a round object).
'at the top' says to take the initial letters.
The first letter of 'big' is 'b'.
The first letters of 'and tapered' is 'at'.
'tow'+'b'+'o'+'at'='TOWBOAT'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for towboat that I've seen before include "powerful vessel" , "Tug" .)

I've seen this clue in The Hindu.
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