Annoy a viceroy and rear admiral with tax on energy (9)
I believe the answer is:
aggravate
'annoy' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'a viceroy and rear admiral with tax on energy' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'a' is within the answer.
'tax' could be 'vat' (Value-Added Tax) and 'vat' is found within the answer.
'energy' could be 'e' (physics symbol as in E=mc2) and 'e' is present in the answer.
'rear admiral' could be 'ra' (naval abbreviation) and 'ra' is located in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for aggravate that I've seen before include "Worsen" , "Exasperate or exacerbate" , "Make (a problem) worse" , "Make more serious" , "compound" .)