Off the lead, dog ran at us, barking a bitter bark (9)
I believe the answer is:
angostura
'bark' is the definition.
(I know that angostura is a type of bark)
'off the lead dog ran at us barking a bitter' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'the' could be 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects) and 't' is present in the answer.
'lead' could be 'go' (synonyms) and 'go' is located in the answer.
'a' could be 'an' and 'an' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'sura' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for angostura that I've seen before include "Bitter flavouring for Argonauts" , "Bitters for 13" , "It makes 8 pink" , "bitter source" , "bitter substance" .)