Chap surrounded by fruit who loves eating (8)
I believe the answer is:
gourmand
'chap surrounded by fruit who loves eating' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both people as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe there's an association between them I don't understand?
'chap surrounded by fruit' is the wordplay.
'chap' becomes 'man' (chap can mean a man).
'surrounded by' indicates putting letters inside.
'fruit' becomes 'gourd' (gourd is a kind of fruit).
'man' going into 'gourd' is 'GOURMAND'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for gourmand that I've seen before include "pig" , "Devotee of eating and drinking to excess" , "Excessive eater and drinker" , "Epicure" , "One keen on eating" .)