Defection by saint who gets answer in a bunch of flowers (8)
I believe the answer is:
apostasy
'defection' is the definition.
('apostasy' can be a synonym of 'defection')
'saint who gets answer in a bunch of flowers' is the wordplay.
'saint who' becomes 'ts' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'gets' means one lot of letters goes inside another (gets can mean captures or absorbs).
'answer' becomes 'a' (abbreviation eg in Q and A).
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'bunch of flowers' becomes 'posy' (I've seen this before).
'ts' placed around 'a' is 'tas'.
'a'+'posy'='aposy'
'tas' put within 'aposy' is 'APOSTASY'.
'by' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for apostasy that I've seen before include "abandoning principles" , "Abandonment of one's beliefs" , "services are abandoned because of this?" , "Ditching faith" , "Rejection of religion" .)