Darlings certain to be in tears, unfortunately (9)
I believe the answer is:
treasures
'darlings' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are plural nouns, I don't see how one could define the other.
'certain to be in tears unfortunately' is the wordplay.
'certain' becomes 'sure' (synonyms).
'to be in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'unfortunately' is an anagram indicator (a bad or unfortunate spelling).
'tears' anagrammed gives 'treas'.
'sure' placed within 'treas' is 'TREASURES'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for treasures that I've seen before include "Values" , "lots of valuables" , "Holds dear, prizes" .)