Being near failure involves I hesitate to say punishment (11)

I believe the answer is:

miserliness

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'being near failure involves i hesitate to say punishment' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this definition defines the answer.

'failure involves i hesitate to say punishment' is the wordplay.
'failure' becomes 'miss' (miss is a kind of failure).
'involves' indicates putting letters inside.
'i hesitate to say' becomes 'er' (expression used when hesitating).
'punishment' becomes 'lines' (writing the same thing over and over).
'er'+'lines'='erlines'
'miss' enclosing 'erlines' is 'MISERLINESS'.

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(Another definition for miserliness that I've seen is " Mean quality".)

I've seen this clue in The Times.

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