Crossword Genius

Steadies one in front of Britney Spears (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

balances

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

'steadies' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both to do with contact as well as being verbs in their -s form.
Maybe you can see an association between them that I don't see?

'one in front of britney spears' is the wordplay.
'one' becomes 'a' (a thing is one thing).
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'front of' says to take the initial letters (the letter at the front of the word).
'spears' becomes 'lances' ('lance' can be a synonym of 'spear').
The initial letter of 'britney' is 'b'.
'b'+'lances'='blances'
'a' placed into 'blances' is 'BALANCES'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for balances that I've seen before include "Maintains equilibrium like tightrope walker" , "Tallies" , "Is poised; sums in account" , "Equalises, offsets" , "Keeps in equilibrium, like credits and debits" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.
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