Tears around with Italian’s drinks (7)
I believe the answer is:
spirits
'drinks' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are verbs in their -s form, I don't understand how one could define the other.
'tears around with italian's' is the wordplay.
'tears' becomes 'rips' (rip is a kind of tear).
'around' shows that the letters should be reversed in order.
'with' says to put letters next to each other.
'italian's' becomes 'it's' (abbreviation for Italian).
'rips' reversed gives 'spir'.
'spir'+'its'='SPIRITS'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for spirits that I've seen before include "Morale" , "whiskeys?" , "Animating forces or hard liquors" , "shorts" , "rum, say" .)