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Say, I survive, repelling a harmful spell (4,3)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

evil eye

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

'a harmful spell' is the definition.
'evil eye' can be an answer for 'spell' (thesaurus). I am not certain of the 'a harmful' bit.

'say i survive repelling' is the wordplay.
'say' indicates a 'sounds like' (homophone) clue.
'survive' becomes 'live' (synonyms).
'repelling' says the letters should be written in reverse.
'i' sounds like 'eye'.
'eye'+'live'='eyelive'
'eyelive' reversed gives 'EVIL EYE'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for evil eye that I've seen before include "Depraved optic with superstitious curse" , "Optical sort of ancient curse" , "Gaze believed harmful" , "Malign influence" , "Look that can be harmful?" .)

I've seen this clue in The Hindu.
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