Attempt to keep French down with heroin (4,1,4)
I believe the answer is:
have a bash
'attempt' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are verbs in their base form.
Maybe you can see a link between them that I can't see?
'keep french down with heroin' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'keep' could be 'have' (I've seen this in another clue) and 'have' is present in the answer.
'heroin' could be 'h' (H is a slang term for heroin) and 'h' is found in the answer.
'down with' could be 'abas' (I've seen this before) and 'abas' is found within the answer.
No letters remain.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'to' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for have a bash that I've seen before include "do some entertaining" , "Do one's best" , "organise a party" , "Try" , "organise social event" .)