Upstanding character, anti-beer, having strayed? (9)
I believe the answer is:
inebriate
'strayed?' is the definition.
The answer and definition are not the same part of speech. However, adjectives and past participle verbs can occasionally define each other.
'upstanding character anti-beer' is the wordplay.
'upstanding' becomes 'i' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'character' indicates an anagram (I've seen 'characters' mean this).
'anti'+'beer'='antibeer'
'antibeer' anagrammed gives 'nebriate'.
'i'+'nebriate'='INEBRIATE'
'having' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for inebriate that I've seen before include "Intoxicate" , "A drunken person" , "Pickled" , "drunken state" , "Make drunk" .)