Ancient queen initially misrepresented as one with a smooth skin (9)
I believe the answer is:
nectarine
'a smooth skin' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I don't understand how one could define the other.
'ancient queen initially misrepresented as one' is the wordplay.
'queen' becomes 'r' (r is abbreviation regina. e.g. in ER ).
'initially' says to put letters next to each other.
'misrepresented' indicates anagramming the letters.
'as one' becomes 'e' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'ancient' put after 'r' is 'rancient'.
'rancient' is an anagram of 'nectarin'.
'nectarin'+'e'='NECTARINE'
'with' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for nectarine that I've seen before include "Entrance I make with thin-skinned peach" , "Fruit - aren't nice (anag)" , "Trace nine to a kind of peach" , "Smooth-skinned variety of peach" , "Kind of peach with thin skin and no down" .)