Becomes friendly because it’s spring? (5)

I believe the answer is:

thaws

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'becomes friendly because' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this definition defines the answer.

'it's spring?' is the wordplay.
'it' becomes 't' (abbreviation. e.g. in 'tis).
'spring?' becomes 'haws' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
't'+'haws'='THAWS'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for thaws that I've seen before include "Starts to unfreeze" , "friendlier times?" , "As role of Morse was to become" , "(Of snow) melts" .)

I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.

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