Spot uppity ad legend going to church about robes (9)
I believe the answer is:
recognise
'spot' is the definition.
(I know that spot can be written as recognise)
'uppity ad legend going to church about robes' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'legend' could be 'g' (leg-end - end letter of 'leg') and 'g' is present in the answer.
'going' could be 'on' (both can mean functioning or activated) and 'on' is present in the remaining letters.
'about' could be 're' ('re' means regarding or about) and 're' is located in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for recognise that I've seen before include "Identify - know" , "Identify as previously known" , "See" , "Acknowledge value" , "Know from having seen before" .)