Crossword Genius

Eager to proceed, I had to carry on (10)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

passionate

'eager' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'proceed i had to carry on' is the wordplay.
'proceed' becomes 'pass' (I've seen this before**).
'had' becomes 'ate' (e.g. I had an ice cream).
'to carry' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'i'+'ate'='iate'
'iate' enclosing 'on' is 'ionate'.
'pass'+'ionate'='PASSIONATE'

'to' is the link.

(Other definitions for passionate that I've seen before include "Most eager" , "Strongly emotional" , "Very keen" , "Ardent" , "Having strong feelings" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.
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