Prevarication unlikely in serenade (8)

I believe the answer is:

stalling

'prevarication' is the definition.
(stalling rather than giving an answer)

'unlikely in serenade' is the wordplay.
'unlikely' becomes 'tall' (as in a tall tale).
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'serenade' becomes 'sing' (to serenade someone is to sing to them).
'tall' going inside 'sing' is 'STALLING'.

(Another definition for stalling that I've seen is " Deliberately delaying an event or action".)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.

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