Brown cow's first to bolt - almost a sign of stupidity (6,3)
I believe the answer is:
dunces cap
'a sign of stupidity' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I cannot tell whether this works.
'brown cow's first to bolt almost' is the wordplay.
'brown' becomes 'dun' (dun is a kind of brown).
'cow's first' becomes 'c' (1st letter of 'cow').
'to bolt' becomes 'escape' (I've seen this before).
'almost' means to remove the last letter (most of the word but not all of it).
'escape' with its last letter taken off is 'escap'.
'dun'+'c'+'escap'='DUNCES CAP'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for dunces cap that I've seen before include "Ignorant boy's headgear" , "Classroom idiot's headgear" , "Headgear used to humiliate slow learners" .)