Colour that is used up before blue, warmer? (9)
I believe the answer is:
eiderdown
'warmer?' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both man-made objects as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps you can see a link between them that I don't see?
'colour that is used up before blue' is the wordplay.
'colour' becomes 'red' (red is a kind of colour).
'that is' becomes 'ie' (abbreviation for id est, 'that is' in Latin).
'used up' is a reversal indicator (in a down clue, letters go up).
'before' says to put letters next to each other.
'blue' becomes 'down' (both can mean sad).
'red'+'ie'='redie'
'redie' backwards is 'eider'.
'eider'+'down'='EIDERDOWN'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for eiderdown that I've seen before include "I wondered about this warm bed covering" , "Soft quilt filled with duck feathers" , "thermal insulation" , "Find cover" , "Warm bedcover" .)