Arouse with a stiff bash? (5)
I believe the answer is:
awake
'arouse' is the definition.
(I know that arouse can be written as awake)
'with a stiff bash?' is the wordplay.
'with' says to put letters next to each other.
'stiff bash?' becomes 'wake' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'a' put next to 'wake' is 'AWAKE'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for awake that I've seen before include "Conscious, aware" , "Not asleep" , "Conscious and (usually) open-eyed" , "No longer in the land of Nod" , "On the ball?" .)