Awful fate met the woman in the aviary (7)
I believe the answer is:
feather
'the aviary' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I don't understand how one could define the other.
'awful fate met the woman' is the wordplay.
'awful' indicates an anagram.
'met' says to put letters next to each other.
'the woman' becomes 'her' (her refers to a woman).
'fate' with letters rearranged gives 'feat'.
'feat'+'her'='FEATHER'
'in' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for feather that I've seen before include "'Birds of a . . . . . . . flock together'" , "Free hat (anag)" , "A white one denotes cowardice" , "Rotate (propeller) blades (to reduce thrust)" , "The fear (anag) - type of bed" .)