Crossword Genius

I make love outside Congress to reproduce, perhaps (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

imitate

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'reproduce perhaps' is the definition.
'imitate' can be an answer for 'reproduce' (imitating is a kind of reproducing). I am unsure of the 'perhaps' bit.

'i make love outside congress' is the wordplay.
'make love' becomes 'mate' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'outside' indicates putting letters inside.
'congress' becomes 'it' (congress can mean sex).
'mate' going around 'it' is 'mitate'.
'i'+'mitate'='IMITATE'

'to' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for imitate that I've seen before include "Copy someone" , "Mock" , "Fake" , "I ate Tim! (anag.)" , "Parrot" .)

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