Paddy, dry, swallowing an alcoholic drink (7)
I believe the answer is:
tantrum
'paddy' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'dry swallowing an alcoholic drink' is the wordplay.
'dry' becomes 'tt' (abbreviation for teetotal).
'swallowing' indicates putting letters inside.
'alcoholic drink' becomes 'rum' (I've seen this before).
'tt' placed around 'an' is 'tant'.
'tant'+'rum'='TANTRUM'
(Other definitions for tantrum that I've seen before include "fit of bad temper" , "Fit - pet" , "Uncontrolled outburst of anger" , "Child's outburst of bad temper" , "Wobbly" .)