A real boost, despite being wounded (4,2,3,3)
I believe the answer is:
shot in the arm
'wounded' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'a real boost despite being' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'a' is present in the answer.
'real' could be 'e' (e is a kind of real) and 'e' is found within the answer.
'being' could be 'shot' (shot is a kind of being) and 'shot' is found within the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for shot in the arm that I've seen before include "Anything that makes one feel encouraged" , "This will buck you up" , "Stimulus" , "Fillip" , "Wounded" .)