Current nearly reaches beach… (9)
I believe the answer is:
ampersand
'current nearly reaches beach' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.
'current nearly reaches beach' is the wordplay.
'current' becomes 'amp' (electricity).
'nearly' means to remove the last letter.
'reaches' becomes 'per' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'beach' becomes 'sand'.
'amp' with its last letter taken off is 'am'.
'am'+'per'+'sand'='AMPERSAND'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for ampersand that I've seen before include "character (sharing with 7)" , "Man spared (anag.)" , "Plus sign" , "Pens drama using &" , "Symbol for 'and'" .)