Compel to follow the scent? (4,2,3,4)
I believe the answer is:
lead by the nose
'compel' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both to do with communicating as well as being verbs in their base form.
Maybe you can see a link between them that I don't see?
'follow the scent?' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'the' could be 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects) and 't' is found in the answer.
'scent?' could be 'nose' (nose can mean the scent of a wine) and 'nose' is found in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
'to' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for lead by the nose that I've seen before include "Force to follow submissively" , "Control (someone) totally" , "Fool" , "Cause to obey submissively" , "in position to sniff at heavy metal?" .)