Crossword Genius

Northeast's near-ruined tangle (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

ensnare

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'tangle' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'northeast's near-ruined' is the wordplay.
'northeast's' becomes 'ens' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'ruined' is an anagram indicator.
'near' with letters rearranged gives 'nare'.
'ens'+'nare'='ENSNARE'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for ensnare that I've seen before include "Ecstatic expression of feeling" , "Catch as if in a trap or net" , "Capture, trap" , "Ambush" .)

I've seen this clue in The Globe and Mail.
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