Crossword Genius

Cathedral city on river bank (4)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

rely

'bank' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'cathedral city on river' is the wordplay.
'cathedral city' becomes 'ely' (I've seen this before**).
'on' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'river' becomes 'r'.
'ely' after 'r' is 'RELY'.

(Other definitions for rely that I've seen before include "City with cathedral" , "Be dependent" , "Be sure" , "All the letters" , "Lyre (anag.)" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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