Barely five hundred and fifty inhabiting North American island (7)
I believe the answer is:
nakedly
'barely' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'fifty inhabiting north american island' is the wordplay.
'fifty' becomes 'dl' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'inhabiting' is an insertion indicator (I've seen this in other clues).
'north american' becomes 'na'.
'island' becomes 'key' (key can mean an island or reef).
'na'+'key'='nakey'
'dl' put into 'nakey' is 'NAKEDLY'.
'five hundred and' is the link.
This may not be correct. Some or all of it may be part of another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for nakedly that I've seen before include "(Done) without shame, or clothes!" , "Barely, nudely" , "In nude manner" , "Key land (anag) - in a blatant manner" , "in blatant fashion" .)
