Island swallowed by tropical uplift (5)
I believe the answer is:
hoist
'uplift' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'island swallowed by tropical' is the wordplay.
'island' becomes 'is'.
'swallowed by' indicates putting letters inside.
'tropical' becomes 'hot' ('hot' can be similar in meaning to 'tropical').
'is' inserted inside 'hot' is 'HOIST'.
(Other definitions for hoist that I've seen before include "Lift with rope and pulley" , "Lift up; device for this" , "Jack" , "Lift, raise" , "piece of lifting gear" .)