Included hug before first of dates (8)
I believe the answer is:
embraced
'included' is the definition.
(embracing is a kind of including)
'hug before first of dates' is the wordplay.
'hug' becomes 'embrace' ('embrace' can be a synonym of 'hug').
'before first of dates' becomes 'd' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'embrace'+'d'='EMBRACED'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for embraced that I've seen before include "Hugged" , "Contained; held closely" , "accepted enthusiastically" , "is taken up" , "given a hug" .)