Before dawn, time first sign of haunting spirit turned up … (5)
I believe the answer is:
night
'before dawn' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both related to time as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps there's an association between them I don't understand?
'time first sign of haunting spirit turned up' is the wordplay.
'time' becomes 't' (abbreviation).
'first sign of' indicates taking the first letters.
'spirit' becomes 'gin' (alcoholic spirit).
'turned up' says the letters should be written in reverse.
The first letter of 'haunting' is 'h'.
't'+'h'+'gin'='thgin'
'thgin' in reverse letter order is 'NIGHT'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for night that I've seen before include "Dark hours" , "'Red sky at . . . . ., shepherd's delight'" , "Hours of darkness" , "''Tender is the ...'' (F Scott Fitzgerald)|" , "Time for bed" .)