Could Daniel East be the gloomy one? (4)
I believe the answer is:
dane
'the gloomy one?' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I cannot understand how one could define the other.
'could daniel east' is the wordplay.
'could daniel' becomes 'dan' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'east' becomes 'e' (abbreviation).
'dan'+'e'='DANE'
'be' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for dane that I've seen before include "EU citizen" , "Hamlet -- as described by 12 [GLOOMY]" , "Hamlet was one" , "Hamlet, say" , "Eg, Hamlet" .)