Wholesale whiskey I had before English meal (10)
I believe the answer is:
widespread
'wholesale' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'whiskey i had before english meal' is the wordplay.
'whiskey' becomes 'W' (alpha bravo charlie delta ...).
'i had' becomes 'I'd' (contraction).
'before' says to put letters next to each other.
'english' becomes 'e' (abbreviation).
'meal' becomes 'spread' (I've seen this before).
'w'+'id'+'e'+'spread'='WIDESPREAD'
(Other definitions for widespread that I've seen before include "Generally prevalent" , "Sweeping" , "broad" , "Extensive" , "available to lots of people" .)