Ascend carrying small drink left for philosopher (9)
I believe the answer is:
aristotle
'philosopher' is the definition.
(Aristotle is an example)
'ascend carrying small drink left' is the wordplay.
'ascend' becomes 'arise' (I've seen this before**).
'carrying' indicates putting letters inside.
'small drink' becomes 'tot' (I've seen this before).
'left' becomes 'l' (common abbreviation).
'tot'+'l'='totl'
'arise' placed around 'totl' is 'ARISTOTLE'.
'for' is the link.
(Other definitions for aristotle that I've seen before include "Philosopher - treats oil (anag)" , "Realist to be like great Greek philosopher" , "Totaliser (anag) - ancient Greek" , "Greek philosopher (Poetics, Politics)" , "Old Greek teacher" .)