Denigrate a fellow for concealing a shortage (7)
I believe the answer is:
blacken
'denigrate' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'a fellow for concealing a shortage' is the wordplay.
'a fellow for' becomes 'ben' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'concealing' indicates putting letters inside.
'a shortage' becomes 'lack' (I've seen this before).
'ben' placed around 'lack' is 'BLACKEN'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for blacken that I've seen before include "Defame" , "Denigrate" , "Damage by speaking ill of" , "Besmirch" , "Tarnish" .)