Absurd assistant sweeping around old cross (11)
I believe the answer is:
paradoxical
'absurd' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'assistant sweeping around old cross' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'assistant' could be 'pa' (personal assistant) and 'pa' is present in the answer.
'around' could be 'ca' (circa) and 'ca' is present in the answer.
'old' could be 'o' (common abbreviation eg in OE for Old English) and 'o' is present in the answer.
'cross' could be 'x' (an X is a cross) and 'x' is found in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for paradoxical that I've seen before include "Seemingly contradictory" , "(Apparently) self-contradictory" , "Apparently contradictory" , "Seemingly absurd or self-contradictory" .)