Crossword Genius

Queen provided rising excitement (4)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

fire

'excitement' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'queen provided rising' is the wordplay.
'queen' becomes 'er' (abbreviation for Elizabeth Regina).
'provided' becomes 'if'.
'rising' says the letters should be written in reverse (going up in a down clue).
'er'+'if'='erif'
'erif' backwards is 'FIRE'.

(Other definitions for fire that I've seen before include "Dismiss; bake in a kiln" , "Manually operated device for dealing with flames" , "See 5" , "Flame - dismiss - shoot" , "There's no smoke without it" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.
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