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Stops a serpent coiling itself around Victor! (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

prevents

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

'stops' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'a serpent coiling itself around victor' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'victor' could be 'v' (phonetic alphabet: alpha, bravo, charlie etc.) and 'v' is found within the answer.
an anagram of 'serpent' is 'preents' which is present in the left over letters.
This accounts for all the letters.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for prevents that I've seen before include "Stops from happening" , "Blocks" , "Keeps form happening" .)

I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.
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