Hard time catching river snake in floating home (9)
I believe the answer is:
houseboat
'floating home' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both man-made objects as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe there's an association between them I don't understand?
'hard time catching river snake' is the wordplay.
'hard' becomes 'h' (abbreviation used in pencil classifications).
'time' becomes 't' (abbreviation).
'catching' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'river' becomes 'ouse' (Yorkshire river).
'snake' becomes 'boa' (boa constrictor, type of snake).
'h'+'t'='ht'
'ouse'+'boa'='ouseboa'
'ht' placed around 'ouseboa' is 'HOUSEBOAT'.
'in' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for houseboat that I've seen before include "home to keep afloat" , "vessel" , "Dwelling" , "Floating abode" , "home secured by the bank" .)