Before dawn, time first sign of haunting spirit turned up … (5)
I believe the answer is:
night
'before dawn' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both related to time as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe there's an association between them I don't understand?
'time first sign of haunting spirit turned up' is the wordplay.
'time' becomes 't' (abbreviation).
'first sign of' says to take the initial letters.
'spirit' becomes 'gin' (alcoholic spirit).
'turned up' is a reversal indicator.
The initial letter of 'haunting' is 'h'.
't'+'h'+'gin'='thgin'
'thgin' backwards is 'NIGHT'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for night that I've seen before include "Dark hours" , "'Red sky at . . . . ., shepherd's delight'" , "Hours of darkness" , "''Tender is the ...'' (F Scott Fitzgerald)|" , "Time for bed" .)