Did he get the lash for stealing? (3,7)
I believe the answer is:
cat burglar
'did he get' is the definition.
The answer is a person as well as being a singular noun. This is suggested by the definition.
'lash for stealing?' is the wordplay.
'lash' becomes 'cat' (catting is a kind of lashing).
'for stealing?' becomes 'burglar' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'cat'+'burglar'='CAT-BURGLAR'
'the' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for cat burglar that I've seen before include "Housebreaker entering by upper windows, skylights etc" , "out to steal the kitty?" , "Criminal who can climb" , "Thief entering via an upper storey" , "What Macavity could be" .)