The stuff to make us faint? (7)
I believe the answer is:
fustian
'the stuff' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both man-made objects as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe there's a link between them I don't understand?
'make us faint?' is the wordplay.
'make' is an anagram indicator.
'us'+'faint'='usfaint'
'usfaint' with letters rearranged gives 'FUSTIAN'.
'to' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for fustian that I've seen before include "Bombastic (style)" , "Thick twilled cotton cloth, or pompous language" , "Bombast" , "Hard-wearing fabric; pompous language" , "Hard-wearing twilled cloth -- it's faun (anag)" .)