Half in boozer breaking taboo of some magnitude (3-4)
I believe the answer is:
non-zero
'half in boozer' is the definition.
The definition suggests an adjective which matches the answer.
'breaking taboo of some magnitude' is the wordplay.
'breaking' indicates putting letters inside.
'taboo' becomes 'no-no' (I've seen this in another clue).
'of some' becomes 'ze' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'magnitude' becomes 'r' (r is a kind of magnitude).
'ze'+'r'='zer'
'nono' placed around 'zer' is 'NON-ZERO'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for non-zero that I've seen before include "Having a positive or negative value, ie anything not equating to nought (mathematics)" , "Either positive or negative" .)