Crossword Genius

Concession opening shortly is hardly raising awareness (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

soporific

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'hardly raising awareness' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I don't see how they can define each other.

'concession opening shortly' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'concession' could be 'sop' (sop is a kind of concession) and 'sop' is found in the answer.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).

'is' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for soporific that I've seen before include "Inducing mental lethargy" , "Sedative" , "Sleep-inducing" , "Inducing drowsiness or sleep" , "Causing sleepiness" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.
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