Lovers stripped with poet to embrace love in the water (9)
I believe the answer is:
overboard
'in the water' is the definition.
(overboard means in the sea)
'lovers stripped with poet to embrace love' is the wordplay.
'stripped' says to take the centre (outside letters removed).
'with' says to put letters next to each other.
'poet' becomes 'bard' (bard is a kind of poet).
'to embrace' indicates putting letters inside.
'love' becomes 'o' (love means zero in tennis).
The centre of 'lovers' is 'over'.
'bard' going around 'o' is 'board'.
'over'+'board'='OVERBOARD'
(Other definitions for overboard that I've seen before include "Very enthusiastic" , "Off boat into water" , "off deck?" , "From a ship into the sea" , "having made a splash" .)