Naval soldier grabbing scrap of cloth lifted greasy stuff (9)
I believe the answer is:
margarine
'greasy stuff' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I can't understand how they can define each other.
'naval soldier grabbing scrap of cloth lifted' is the wordplay.
'naval soldier' becomes 'marine' (I've seen this before. I am not sure about the 'naval' bit.).
'grabbing' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'scrap of cloth' becomes 'rag' (I've seen this before).
'lifted' is a reversal indicator (going up in down clue).
'rag' reversed gives 'gar'.
'marine' placed around 'gar' is 'MARGARINE'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for margarine that I've seen before include "Vegetable fat" , "Reg and Marian make a butter substitute" , "Fat-based butter substitute" , "Is Ma angrier at this spread?" , "Substitute spread for butter" .)