Bashful about a couple of bishops? That's contemptible (6)
I believe the answer is:
shabby
'contemptible' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'bashful about a couple of bishops?' is the wordplay.
'bashful' becomes 'shy' (bashful means shy or reserved).
'about' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'couple of' shows that letters should be duplicated.
'bishops?' becomes 'b' (this might be a standard abbreviation which I don't know about).
'b' doubled is 'bb'.
'a'+'bb'='abb'
'shy' placed around 'abb' is 'SHABBY'.
'that's' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for shabby that I've seen before include "'Scruffy, tattered (6)'" , "Worn and run-down, like clothes" , "Badly clad - sort of trick?" , "Unworthy" , "Scruffy; unfair" .)