Spirits man swallows alternatively (6)
I believe the answer is:
morale
'spirits' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'man swallows alternatively' is the wordplay.
'man' becomes 'male' (**).
'swallows' is an insertion indicator.
'alternatively' becomes 'or'.
'male' enclosing 'or' is 'MORALE'.
(Other definitions for morale that I've seen before include "Team spirit" , "Feeling of well-being" , "Esprit, degree of confidence" , "Degree of optimism (of troops, perhaps)" , "Esprit de corps" .)