Soldiers first to nose a perfume that's reviving (9)
I believe the answer is:
renascent
'reviving' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are adjectives. Perhaps there's an association between them I don't understand?
'soldiers first to nose a perfume' is the wordplay.
'soldiers' becomes 're' (Royal Engineers).
'first to' says to take the initial letters.
'perfume' becomes 'scent' (synonyms).
The initial letter of 'nose' is 'n'.
're'+'n'+'a'+'scent'='RENASCENT'
'that's' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for renascent that I've seen before include "becoming effective again" , "coming back to life again" , "Making a comeback" , "Becoming active again" , "Entrances (anag.); having new vitality" .)