Briefly, priest always — does this? (4)
I believe the answer is:
pray
'this?' is the definition.
The answer and definition are not the same part of speech.
'briefly priest always' is the wordplay.
'briefly' means to remove the last letter.
'priest' becomes 'pp' (I've seen this in other clues).
'always' becomes 'ray' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'pp' with its last letter taken off is 'p'.
'p'+'ray'='PRAY'
'does' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for pray that I've seen before include "Address a deity" , "Wish earnestly (for a particular outcome)" , "Address God" , "Appeal to higher authority" , "Commune with God" .)