Cooks topless - and burns (5)
I believe the answer is:
rills
'burns' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are plural nouns, I can't understand how they can define each other.
'cooks topless' is the wordplay.
'cooks' becomes 'grills' (grilling is a kind of cooking).
'topless' means to remove the first letter.
'grills' with its first letter removed is 'RILLS'.
'and' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for rills that I've seen before include "Small streams" , "Rivulets, runnels" .)