Sweeten start of contract providing opening fittingly (7)
I believe the answer is:
dulcify
'sweeten' is the definition.
(I know that sweeten can be written as dulcify)
'start of contract providing opening fittingly' is the wordplay.
'start of contract' becomes 'c' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'providing' becomes 'if' (eg 'providing it's sunny' means 'if it's sunny').
'opening' means one lot of letters goes inside another (some letters open a gap in others).
'fittingly' becomes 'duly' (I've seen this in another clue).
'c'+'if'='cif'
'cif' placed inside 'duly' is 'DULCIFY'.
Can you help me to learn more?
I've seen this clue in The Times.
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