Animate nine dancing elves from southeast (7)

I believe the answer is:

enliven

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'animate' is the definition.
(I know that animate can be written as enliven)

I can't explain the remainder of the clue.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for enliven that I've seen before include "Invigorate" , "Make more animated" , "Animate, inject vitality into" , "Bring excitement to" , "Pep up" .)

I've seen this clue in The Irish Times.

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