Declaring (7)
I believe the answer is:
avowing
<span class="explanation-format__ClueExplanation">'<span class="explanation-format__original">declaring</span>' is the definition.<br/ ><span class="explanation-format__explanation">(avowing is a kind of declaring)</span><br/ ><br/ >This is the entire clue.<br/ ></span>
(Other definitions for avowing that I've seen before include "Clearly maintaining" , "Declaring" , "Confessing" .)