Suggests friendless Billy drinks at home (9)
I believe the answer is:
nominates
'suggests' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'friendless billy drinks at home' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'at' could be 'in' (synonymous in some cases - eg at school, in school) and 'in' is located in the answer.
'drinks' could be 'mates' (mate is a kind of drink) and 'mates' is present in the leftover letters.
The remaining letters 'no' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for nominates that I've seen before include "Proposes" , "Puts name forward in Minnesota" , "Propose for election" , "Suggests" .)