Criticise president being elevated, showing determination (5)
I believe the answer is:
spine
'elevated showing determination' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I can't see how one could define the other.
'criticise president' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'president' could be 'p' (common abbreviation eg in VP) and 'p' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'sine' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'being' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for spine that I've seen before include "Vertebrae, complete" , "Series of vertebrae" , "Thorn" , "Line of vertebrae" , "Vertebral column" .)