Crossword Genius

Spring pay increase? (5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

arise

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'spring' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)

'pay increase?' is the wordplay.
'pay' becomes 'a' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'increase?' becomes 'rise' (rising is a kind of increasing).
'a'+'rise'='ARISE'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for arise that I've seen before include "Get up or come up" , "Come to light" , "Emerge" , "Become apparent" , "W B Yeats: 'I will . . . . . and go now'" .)

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