Dope inhaled by vacuously abhorrent setter (5)
I believe the answer is:
agent
'dope inhaled by vacuously abhorrent setter' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both people as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps there's an association between them I don't understand?
'dope inhaled by vacuously abhorrent' is the wordplay.
'dope' becomes 'gen' (both can mean information).
'inhaled by' is an insertion indicator (inserted letters are inhaled or absorbed).
'vacuously' means to remove the middle letters.
'abhorrent' with its middle removed is 'at'.
'gen' inserted into 'at' is 'AGENT'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for agent that I've seen before include "Traveller" , "Actor" , "One may be working" , "One acting on behalf of another" , "Spy; service provider" .)