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Prudence and Charlie taking the lead in sale (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

caution

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

'prudence' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'charlie taking the lead in sale' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'charlie' could be 'c' (phonetic alphabet: alpha, bravo, charlie etc.) and 'c' is present in the answer.
'taking' could be 'on' (eg one taking drugs is 'on' drugs) and 'on' is present in the answer.
'the' could be 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects) and 't' is present in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

'and' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for caution that I've seen before include "Care taken to avoid danger" , "Warning - prudence" , "Carefulness - yellow card?" , "Care; police warning" , "Caveat, prudence" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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