Characteristics describing Romeo meeting love rats (8)
I believe the answer is:
traitors
'rats' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'characteristics describing romeo meeting love' is the wordplay.
'characteristics' becomes 'traits' (I've seen this in another clue).
'describing' is an insertion indicator (describe can mean to form the outline of).
'romeo' becomes 'r' (phonetic alphabet: alpha, bravo, charlie etc.).
'meeting' says to put letters next to each other.
'love' becomes 'o' (love means zero in tennis).
'r' put after 'o' is 'or'.
'traits' placed around 'or' is 'TRAITORS'.
(Other definitions for traitors that I've seen before include "Quislings, collaborators 98)" , "They betray causes and countries" , "Double-dealers" , "Bad eggs" .)