Crossword Genius

Take off, seeing Italian grabbed by single pal (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

imitate

'take off' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'italian grabbed by single pal' is the wordplay.
'italian' becomes 'it'.
'grabbed by' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'single' becomes 'i' (one).
'pal' becomes 'mate' (I've seen this before).
'i'+'mate'='imate'
'it' put within 'imate' is 'IMITATE'.

'seeing' acts as a link.

(Other definitions for imitate that I've seen before include "Mimic or follow as a model" , "I ate Tim! (anag.)" , "Copy or mimic" , "Take as a model" , "Fake" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.
Want a hint initially instead of a full solution? Install my app