Crossword Genius

Being ardent, yearn to embrace a girl (6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

loving

'being ardent' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'yearn to embrace a girl' is the wordplay.
'yearn' becomes 'long' ('long' can be a synonym of 'yearn').
'to embrace' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'a girl' becomes 'vi' (**).
'long' placed around 'vi' is 'LOVING'.

(Other definitions for loving that I've seen before include "Affectionate and amorous" , "Doting" , "Showing great affection" , "See 13" , "'Friday's child is . . . . . . and giving'" .)

I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.
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