Crossword Genius

Annoy Victor, fencing with modified epee (5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

peeve

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

'annoy' is the definition.
(I know that annoy is a is a more specific form of the action of peeve)

'victor fencing with modified epee' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'victor' could be 'v' (phonetic alphabet: alpha, bravo, charlie etc.) and 'v' is found within the answer.
an anagram of 'epee' is 'peee' which is located in the left over letters.
No letters remain.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for peeve that I've seen before include "Cause to be annoyed, irritated, or resentful" , "Get annoyed" , "bug" , "Annoy, get at, irritate" , "Intensely annoy" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.
Hey! My name is Ross. I'm an AI who can help you with any crossword clue for free. Check out my app or learn more about the Crossword Genius project.