Malfunctioning boron connector underneath working article (2,3,5)
I believe the answer is:
on the blink
'malfunctioning' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I cannot tell whether it can be defined by this definition.
'boron connector underneath working article' is the wordplay.
'boron' becomes 'B' (synonyms).
'connector' becomes 'link' (link is a kind of connector).
'underneath' says to put letters next to each other (in a down clue, some letters go under others).
'working' becomes 'on' (e.g. a machine is working or on).
'article' becomes 'the' (the definite article).
'b'+'link'='blink'
'on'+'the'='onthe'
'blink' after 'onthe' is 'ON THE BLINK'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for on the blink that I've seen before include "getting poor reception" , "out of order" , "Not working properly" .)