Carefully coat and flatten the timber (7)
I believe the answer is:
cypress
'timber' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I can't see how one could define the other.
'carefully coat and flatten' is the wordplay.
'coat' means to remove the middle letters (only the letters which coat the word are used).
'and' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'flatten' becomes 'press' (pressing is a kind of flattening).
'carefully' with its middle taken out is 'cy'.
'cy'+'press'='CYPRESS'
'the' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for cypress that I've seen before include "Widely cultivated conifer" , "Conifer, symbol of mourning" , "Dark-leaved conifer" , "Wood" , "Coniferous tree" .)