Crossword Genius

Underground shelter arrived at with input from Republican (6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

grotto

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'underground shelter' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I can't see how one could define the other.

'arrived at with input from republican' is the wordplay.
'arrived at' becomes 'got to' ('get to' can be a synonym of 'arrive at').
'with' indicates putting letters inside.
'input from republican' becomes 'r' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'gotto' going around 'r' is 'GROTTO'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for grotto that I've seen before include "Santa's cave" , "A picturesque cave as in Lourdes (6)" , "Small cave as at Lourdes" , "Small picturesque cave" , "Pretty cave" .)

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