Crossword Genius

Sat awkwardly in a wine store, choose not to partake? (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

abstain

'choose not to partake?' is the definition.
(as in abstaining in a vote)

'sat awkwardly in a wine store' is the wordplay.
'awkwardly' indicates an anagram.
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'wine store' becomes 'bin' (stand for storing wine bottles).
'sat' is an anagram of 'sta'.
'a'+'bin'='abin'
'sta' placed inside 'abin' is 'ABSTAIN'.

(Other definitions for abstain that I've seen before include "go on wagon" , "Desist" , "decline at voting time" , "Refrain, forbear" , "Refuse to imbibe" .)

I've seen this clue in The Sun and The Times.
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