Crossword Genius

Frenzied Italian brought up in country, mostly (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

frantic

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'frenzied' is the definition.
(I know that frenzied can be written as frantic)

'italian brought up in country mostly' is the wordplay.
'italian' becomes 'it' (abbreviation for Italian).
'brought up' is a reversal indicator (in a down clue, letters go up).
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'country mostly' becomes 'franc' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'it' in reverse letter order is 'ti'.
'ti' placed within 'franc' is 'FRANTIC'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for frantic that I've seen before include "Distracted" , "At the end of one's tether" , "Wildly agitated" , "Frenetic" , "not collected!" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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