Born in river or up in sky? (8)
I believe the answer is:
airborne
'or up in sky?' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this definition defines the answer.
'born in river' is the wordplay.
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'river' becomes 'aire' (River Aire in Yorkshire).
'born' placed into 'aire' is 'AIRBORNE'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for airborne that I've seen before include "(Of aircraft) flying" , "in Hercules, perhaps" , "Aloft, flying" , "so, paras?" , "In flight after taking off" .)