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Almost caught cuddling miss with love (5,2)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

close to

'almost' is the definition.
(synonyms)

'caught cuddling miss with love' is the wordplay.
'caught' becomes 'ct'.
'cuddling' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'miss' becomes 'lose' (I've seen this in other clues).
'with' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'love' becomes 'o' (In tennis, 'love' means 'zero').
'ct' enclosing 'lose' is 'closet'.
'closet'+'o'='CLOSE TO'

(Other definitions for close to that I've seen before include "near" , "'Nearby (5,2)'" , "Nearly" .)

I've seen this clue in The Hindu.
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