Lift by universal acclaim (7)
I believe the answer is:
upraise
'lift' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'by universal acclaim' is the wordplay.
'by' says to put letters next to each other.
'universal' becomes 'u'.
'acclaim' becomes 'praise' (I've seen this before).
'u' put next to 'praise' is 'UPRAISE'.
(Other definitions for upraise that I've seen before include "Erect" , "EU pairs (anag) - lift higher" , "Exalt - elevate" .)