Crossword Genius

Democrat joining secret society gives service (6,3)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

dinner set

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

'service' is the definition.
(I know that dinner set is a type of service)

'democrat joining secret society gives' is the wordplay.
'democrat' becomes 'd'.
'joining' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'secret' becomes 'inner' (I've seen this before).
'society gives' becomes 'set' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'd'+'inner'+'set'='DINNER-SET'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for dinner set that I've seen before include "Table service" , "Complete service of plates and dishes for a meal" , "Collection of plates and dishes" , "China" , "crockery" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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