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Mother with fish about to rise and feign injury (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

malinger

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'rise and feign injury' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.

'mother with fish about to' is the wordplay.
'mother' becomes 'ma' (Ma is another word for mother or mum).
'with' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'fish' becomes 'ling' (ling is a kind of fish).
'about to' becomes 'er' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'ma'+'ling'+'er'='MALINGER'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for malinger that I've seen before include "To shirk work" , "Feign sickness to avoid work." , "Skive by pretending to be ill" , "Feign illness to avoid work" , "Slack in germinal fashion" .)

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.
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