Acknowledge the audience and prepare to play the cello? (4,1,3)
I believe the answer is:
take a bow
'acknowledge the audience' is the definition.
(as in bowing in front of an audience)
'prepare to play the cello?' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'play' could be 'bow' (bowing is a kind of playing) and 'bow' is present in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
'and' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for take a bow that I've seen before include "Acknowledge praise or accept credit" , "Violinist's lesson one" , "Acknowledge applause as entertainer does" , "Acknowledge applause with bodily movement" , "Acknowledge applause, bend from waist" .)