Continue to dissolve the material (6)
I believe the answer is:
melton
'the material' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are singular nouns.
Perhaps they are linked in a way I don't understand?
'continue to dissolve' is the wordplay.
'continue' becomes 'on' (I've seen this in other clues).
'to' means one lot of letters go next to another (I've seen this in other clues).
'dissolve' becomes 'melt' (melting is a kind of dissolving).
'on' after 'melt' is 'MELTON'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for melton that I've seen is " Cloth".)