Crossword Genius

Shoot a lot of stoat in the northern way (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

germinate

'shoot' is the definition.
(I know that shoot can be written as germinate)

'a lot of stoat in the northern way' is the wordplay.
'a lot of' means to remove the last letter (a lot of the word but not all of it).
'stoat' becomes 'ermine' (I've seen this before).
'in the' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'northern way' becomes 'gate' (northern term for a road or street).
'ermine' with its final letter taken off is 'ermin'.
'ermin' put within 'gate' is 'GERMINATE'.

(Other definitions for germinate that I've seen before include "(Of seed) start to shoot" , "Start to grow - a regiment (anag)" , "Spring up" , "Mere giant (anag) - start to grow" , "come to life" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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