Crossword Genius

Tell friend to go round one drunk (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

militate

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

'tell' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'friend to go round one drunk' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'one' could be 'li' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'li' is present in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for militate that I've seen before include "Be a force (against)" , "Serve as strong influence against" , "Have power (against)" , "Bring about an effect or change" , "Provide forceful evidence against" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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