With wages cut, will he joke? (3)
I believe the answer is:
wag
'he joke?' is the definition.
The answer is a person as well as being a singular noun. This is suggested by the definition.
'with wages cut' is the wordplay.
'with' becomes 'w' (abbreviation).
'wages cut' becomes 'ag' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'w'+'ag'='WAG'
'will' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for wag that I've seen before include "Person fond of tricks and playing jokes" , "Comedian" , "Move briskly to and fro" , "card" , "Shake" .)