Circus performer in dress almost grabbed by a lion? (7)
I believe the answer is:
acrobat
'circus performer' is the definition.
(type of performing gymnast)
'dress almost grabbed by a lion?' is the wordplay.
'dress almost' becomes 'rob' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'grabbed by' means one lot of letters goes inside another (inserted letters are grabbed inside).
'lion?' becomes 'cat' (lions are big cats).
'a'+'cat'='acat'
'rob' inserted into 'acat' is 'ACROBAT'.
'in' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for acrobat that I've seen before include "One appearing head over heels" , "performer of risky feats?" , "Circus gymnast" , "Athletic Circus Performer" , "Gymnastic performer" .)