Unfairly shut out for nothing, in a way (5)
I believe the answer is:
south
'a way' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both locations as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps there's an association between them I don't understand?
'unfairly shut out for nothing' is the wordplay.
'unfairly' indicates an anagram (I've seen this in other clues).
'out' indicates putting letters inside.
'for nothing' becomes 'o' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'shut' with letters rearranged gives 'suth'.
'suth' placed around 'o' is 'SOUTH'.
'in' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for south that I've seen before include "Cardinal point" , "Direction to the right of sunrise" , "Card player" , "Antarctica" , "1949 musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein, made into a film in 1958" .)