Grimace when captain gets into alcohol (5)
I believe the answer is:
wince
'grimace' is the definition.
(I know that grimace is the is a more specific form of the action of wince.)
'when captain gets into alcohol' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'when' could be 'e' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'e' is found within the answer.
'into' could be 'in' and 'in' is located in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for wince that I've seen before include "Recoil with pain" , "Cringe" , "Shrink" , "pained" , "Start back in pain" .)