Close current books, meditative after loss of papa (9)
I believe the answer is:
intensive
'close current books meditative after loss of papa' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.
'close current books meditative after loss of papa' is the wordplay.
'close current' becomes 'i' (symbol for electric current. I am not sure about the 'close' bit.).
'books' becomes 'NT' (New Testament).
'meditative' becomes 'pensive' (synonyms).
'after loss of' indicates named letters should be taken away.
'papa' becomes 'P' (NATO / phonetic alphabet).
'pensive' with 'p' taken out is 'ensive'.
'i'+'nt'+'ensive'='INTENSIVE'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for intensive that I've seen before include "Very vigorous or thorough; concentrating" , "Demanding" , "Concentrated" .)