A mother needed for man thus deprived? (4)
I believe the answer is:
adam
'man thus deprived?' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.
'a mother needed' is the wordplay.
'mother' becomes 'dam' (female parent of an animal).
'needed' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'a'+'dam'='ADAM'
'for' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for adam that I've seen before include "father of us all?" , "Eden inhabitant" , "First man in the Bible" , "Father of man" , "Biblical progenitor of human race" .)