Stirring drink -- a sign of nerves? (8)
I believe the answer is:
dramatic
'stirring' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'drink a sign of nerves?' is the wordplay.
'drink' becomes 'dram' (I've seen this before).
'sign of nerves?' becomes 'tic'.
'dram'+'a'+'tic'='DRAMATIC'
(Other definitions for dramatic that I've seen before include "Sensational, thrilling" , "with eye-popping effect!" , "spectacular" , "Sudden and striking" , "Like theatre" .)