Celeb ditching the practice of mentioning famous connections (4-8)
I believe the answer is:
name-dropping
'practice of mentioning famous connections' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this definition defines the answer.
'celeb ditching' is the wordplay.
'celeb' becomes 'name' (I've seen this in another clue).
'ditching' becomes 'dropping' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'name'+'dropping'='NAME-DROPPING'
'the' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for name-dropping that I've seen before include "Casual mention of the famous in order to impress" , "Boasting of acquaintance" , "Referring to one''s famous friends?" , "Casually mentioning famous people" , "Practice of referring to famous people in order to impress" .)