The first indication that one likes a lot (7,3)
I believe the answer is:
opening bid
'the' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I cannot judge whether it can be defined by this definition.
'first indication that one likes a lot' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'first' could be 'opening' (similar in meaning) and 'opening' is present in the answer.
'one' could be 'i' (Roman numeral) and 'i' is located in the answer.
'lot' could be 'd' and 'd' is present in the answer.
A single letter 'b' remains which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for opening bid that I've seen is " Such as 1D".)