Celebrities adopt something laid up, showing evidence of livestock disease? (8)
I believe the answer is:
staggers
'celebrities adopt something laid up showing evidence of livestock disease?' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this definition defines the answer.
'celebrities adopt something laid up' is the wordplay.
'celebrities' becomes 'stars' (star can mean a famous person).
'adopt' indicates putting letters inside (inserted letters are taken in or adopted).
'something' becomes 'egg' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'laid up' says the letters should be written backwards.
'egg' written backwards gives 'gge'.
'stars' placed around 'gge' is 'STAGGERS'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for staggers that I've seen before include "Disease affecting farmyard animals" , "astounds" , "Form of vertigo" , "Reels about like gagsters" , "causes amazement" .)