Crossword Genius

First home with promise, by a lake (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

inaugural

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'first' is the definition.
(I know that first can be written as inaugural)

'home with promise by a lake' is the wordplay.
'home' becomes 'in' ('he's home' can mean 'he's in').
'with' indicates putting letters inside.
'promise by' becomes 'ugu' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'a lake' becomes 'aral' (I have seen 'Lake of Asia ' mean 'aral' so perhaps 'lake' could also mean 'aral').
'ugu' going inside 'aral' is 'augural'.
'in'+'augural'='INAUGURAL'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for inaugural that I've seen before include "First address" , "Of an opening ceremony" , "Marking the beginning of, eg, an institution" , "Of a speech made on taking office" , "Of a ceremony officially marking the beginning of something" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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