Charlie stirs drinks excessively (8)

I believe the answer is:

carouses

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'drinks excessively' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are verbs in their -s form, I cannot understand how one could define the other.

'charlie stirs' is the wordplay.
'charlie' becomes 'C' (phonetic alphabet).
'stirs' becomes 'arouses' (arousing is a kind of stirring).
'c'+'arouses'='CAROUSES'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for carouses that I've seen before include "as eight [REVELLER] does" , "Engages in boisterous, drunken merrymaking" .)

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