Crossword Genius

Bootlicker? Bend over with hands around heel of shoe! (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

crawler

'bootlicker?' is the definition.
(both can mean a sycophantic person)

'bend over with hands around heel of shoe' is the wordplay.
'bend over with' becomes 'craw' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'hands' becomes 'LR' (abbreviations for left and right).
'around' is an insertion indicator.
'heel of' says to take the final letters (in a down clue, the letter at the bottom).
The last letter of 'shoe' is 'e'.
'lr' placed around 'e' is 'ler'.
'craw'+'ler'='CRAWLER'

(Other definitions for crawler that I've seen before include "Figure that's greasy" , "Minion" , "heavy slow-moving vehicle" , "Toady" , "Obsequious person" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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