Crossword Genius

Generous drink's raised spirits essentially (5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

large

'generous' is the definition.
(similar in meaning)

'drink's raised spirits essentially' is the wordplay.
'drink's raised' becomes 'lar' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'spirits' becomes 'angels' (I've seen this before).
'essentially' says to take the centre.
The middle letters of 'angels' are 'ge'.
'lar'+'ge'='LARGE'

(Other definitions for large that I've seen before include "Lake" , "Titanic" , "Regal (anag)" , "broad" , "Lager (anag.)" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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