Flagrantly starts to gaze longingly at a ring left by unknown (9)

I believe the answer is:

glaringly

'flagrantly' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'starts to gaze longingly at a ring left by unknown' is the wordplay.
'starts to' says to take the initial letters.
'at' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'left by' becomes 'l' (I've seen this in other clues).
'unknown' becomes 'y' (algebra).
The initial letters of 'gaze longingly' is 'gl'.
'gl'+'a'+'ring'+'l'+'y'='GLARINGLY'

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.

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