Adrift in the Adriatic? (2,3)
I believe the answer is:
at sea
'adrift' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'the adriatic?' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'the' could be 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects) and 't' is present in the answer.
'adriatic?' could be 'sea' (adriatic is a kind of sea) and 'sea' is found in the answer.
A single letter 'a' remains which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'in' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for at sea that I've seen before include "floundering" , "sailing the Atlantic?" , "Where to find flounders" , "on board" , "Perplexed" .)