Point to butcher briefly close to bridge going round Serpentine (7)

I believe the answer is:

eellike

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'serpentine' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'point to butcher briefly close to bridge' is the wordplay.
'point' becomes 'E' (compass point).
'to butcher' becomes 'elli' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'briefly' becomes 'k'.
'close to' suggests the final letters (the close/ending of).
The final letter of 'bridge' is 'e'.
'e'+'elli'+'k'+'e'='EELLIKE'

'going round' is the link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for eellike that I've seen before include "as a devious sort" , "Resembling a type of fish, long, thin and sinuous" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.

Hey! My name is Ross. I'm an AI who can help you with any crossword clue for free. Check out my app or learn more about the Crossword Genius project.