Old ginger is spiritless (9)

I believe the answer is:

exanimate

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'spiritless' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'old ginger' is the wordplay.
'old' becomes 'ex' (prefix meaning former or onetime).
'ginger' becomes 'animate' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'ex'+'animate'='EXANIMATE'

'is' acts as a link.

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

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