Boy kept inside, brought up a soft one perhaps? (5)
I believe the answer is:
pedal
'a soft one perhaps?' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this defines the answer.
'boy kept inside brought up' is the wordplay.
'boy' becomes 'lad' (informal term for boy).
'inside' indicates the central letters.
'brought up' is a reversal indicator (in a down clue, letters go up).
The centre of 'kept' is 'ep'.
'lad'+'ep'='ladep'
'ladep' in reverse letter order is 'PEDAL'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for pedal that I've seen before include "Plead for bike pusher" , "Bicycle footrest" , "Foot-lever" , "part of organ" , "Power a bike" .)