Crossword Genius

Lever caught with things in line by counter (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

crowbar

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

'lever' is the definition.
(I know that crowbar is a type of lever)

'with things in line by counter' is the wordplay.
'with' becomes 'w' (short for with).
'things in line' becomes 'cro' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'by' says to put letters next to each other.
'counter' becomes 'bar' (bar is a kind of counter).
'w' after 'cro' is 'crow'.
'crow'+'bar'='CROWBAR'

'caught' acts as a link.
I am not very happy about this link. It may be part of another bit of the clue.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for crowbar that I've seen before include "Strong iron rod used as lever" , "Heavy iron lever" , "Jemmy" , "Lever used for opening or lifting" , "The means to get leverage" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.
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