Stretch of lake twists to the north (6)
I believe the answer is:
sprawl
'stretch' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'lake twists to the north' is the wordplay.
'lake' becomes 'l'.
'twists' becomes 'warps'.
'to the north' shows that the letters should be reversed in order.
'l'+'warps'='lwarps'
'lwarps' back-to-front is 'SPRAWL'.
'of' is the link.
(Other definitions for sprawl that I've seen before include "Ungainly posture" , "Lie about in loose-limbed manner" , "Spread out irregularly over a large area" , "Lie with arms and legs spread about loosely" , "Lie in an ungainly fashion" .)