Dead fast to skirt round unionist emitting gas (9)
I believe the answer is:
flatulent
'dead' is the definition.
Both the answer and definition are adjectives. Maybe there's a link between them I don't understand?
'fast to skirt round unionist emitting gas' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'fast' could be 'lent' (Lent is a period of fasting in Christianity) and 'lent' is found within the answer.
'unionist' could be 'u' (abbreviation as in Democratic Unionist Party) and 'u' is found within the answer.
The remaining letters 'flat' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for flatulent that I've seen before include "Suffering from excessive intestinal gas" , "Suffering from wind or gas" .)