Delight to embrace European animal that hops (4)

I believe the answer is:

joey

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'animal that hops' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.

'delight to embrace european' is the wordplay.
'delight' becomes 'joy' (synonyms).
'to embrace' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'european' becomes 'e' (abbreviation e.g. EU).
'joy' placed around 'e' is 'JOEY'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for joey that I've seen before include "Sydney's youngster" , "jumper, in a pocket?" , "Young kangaroo" , "Baby boomer's" , "Threepenny bit" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.

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