Copes in hospital with carbon-free candles (7)
I believe the answer is:
handles
'copes' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both man-made objects as well as being plural nouns.
Maybe there's a link between them I don't understand?
'hospital with carbon-free candles' is the wordplay.
'hospital' becomes 'H' (abbreviation for hospital).
'with' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'carbon' becomes 'C' (C is the chemical symbol for carbon).
'free' is a deletion indicator (the word is freed of certain letters).
'candles' with 'c' taken away is 'andles'.
'h'+'andles'='HANDLES'
'in' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for handles that I've seen before include "Names" , "Lash end (anag.)" , "Copes with" , "Grips for lifting" , "Feels" .)